China’s Xi Jinping and California’s Gavin Newsom strike agreement on climate cooperation

 

China’s Xi Jinping and California’s Gavin Newsom strike agreement  on climate cooperation

• Chinese president says Beijing and Washington have ‘huge potential’ to partner on green development during meeting with California governor
• Newsom’s talks with Xi are part of climate-focused tour that has sparked controversy back home, 25 Oct, 2023
  
  
  
  
  Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting California Governor Gavin Newsom that collaboration with the United States on green development and climate change has “huge potential”, echoing the governor’s positive tone following a raft of high-level meetings in Beijing.

“It is completely possible for us to strengthen cooperation [in aspects like green development and climate change], and make it a new highlight for the development of China-US relations,” Xi told the governor on Wednesday.

Xi said the economic interests of the two countries were “closely intertwined” and they should work towards a mutually beneficial direction.

The Chinese leader said he “highly valued” cooperation on the local and industry levels, adding that there was “huge potential for China and the US to cooperate in areas like green development and climate change”.

The Democratic governor, who has advocated for ambitious climate policies, arrived in the Chinese capital to promote climate partnership after touring Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou starting on Monday.

After meeting Xi, Newsom told the press they had “accelerated progress on climate in meaningful and substantive ways”.

Newsom’s meeting with Xi followed separate meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Vice-President Han Zheng.

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The governor also renewed a decade-old climate-focused agreement with Zheng Shanjie, chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the two sides agreed to advance efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and accelerate the clean energy transition, according to a statement from Newsom’s office.

“We’re not going to move the needle on climate change unless the United States and China collaborate together,” he said, noting that the US and China together account for over 40 per cent of global emissions.

Newsom will meet local officials on Thursday to promote collaboration on low-carbon green growth, trade and tourism, and research and development of new technologies in the field.

The high-profile meetings added to signs of stabilising US-China relations and raised expectations for a meeting between Xi and US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Apec summit in San Francisco, California next month.

Newsom said he was “hopeful” that talks between the leaders would be held in his state, but a final decision on the potential meeting has yet to be announced by Beijing.

He agreed that cooperation on climate issues was a “good diplomatic tool” to open doors to conversations on other areas.

Earlier this month, Xi met a group of US lawmakers led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. At the meeting, the Chinese president said Beijing and Washington did not need to have a head-to-head confrontation.

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Newsom’s stop in Beijing is aimed at advancing climate collaboration and speaking with “several high-level national and local officials” about topics including the clean energy transition and economic growth while fighting climate crises, according to an earlier statement from his office.

Newsom said his meeting with Xi focused “more deeply and substantively on the issue of climate change on low carbon green growth” while he discussed “a myriad of issues across the spectrum” in a separate meeting with top Chinese diplomat Wang.

These included the situation in Gaza as well as other issues including democracy, human rights and Taiwan, he said.

“We also had a chance to talk in more substantive terms around economic development and tourism, getting more flights back into the United States and the state of California,” he said.

California is a driving force for the US economy, and if the state were an independent country, it would rank as the fifth largest economy in the world.

Newsom said he saw a future for more Chinese electric vehicles on California roads, but highlighted the need to “shape that future in the context of free trade arrangements”.

There was also a “shared desire” to double the number of direct flights from China to the United States by the end of this calendar year, the governor’s office said.

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Newsom is the first governor of a US state to visit China since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The trip has provoked resistance from both Democrats and Republicans as tensions over Taiwan, human rights and technological rivalry have ramped up.

Republicans called the trip “delusional” in light of existing trade and diplomatic disputes, while some of his fellow Democrats warned against staying silent about human rights issues in Hong Kong.

The California governor made climate change the focus of his speech on Monday at the University of Hong Kong, where he lauded the city’s climate policies, including business disclosures on climate impacts and requirements for protected sites.

He visited the world’s first all-electric municipal bus fleet in Shenzhen the next day, where he also tried an off-road U8 SUV from Chinese carmaker BYD’s Yangwang series.

Newsom then travelled to Guangzhou, where he met Guangdong provincial leaders and agreed to step up exchanges in areas including new energy vehicles, decarbonisation and carbon emissions trading.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between Newsom and Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong, according to Guangzhou Daily.

After Newsom’s stay in Beijing, he will travel to the coastal province Jiangsu to visit wind power facilities and wetlands, with his last stop being financial hub Shanghai, where he will tour Tesla’s Gigafactory.

California has the biggest Chinese-American population of any US state, and Newsom’s trip also aimed to promote bilateral economic development and tourism while strengthening cultural ties and combating xenophobia.

He is expected to sign agreements with the provincial leaders of Jiangsu and local officials in Shanghai.