(The Center Square) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared “California Panda Day” to highlight Sino-California cooperation amid growing scrutiny of Minnesota Gov. and now Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz's close relationship with China.
“Building on our strong foundation of partnership and deep cultural and economic ties, I traveled to China last year to advance priority issues, including climate action and economic development,” Newsom said in his proclamation designating August 8 as Panda Day in California. “We hope the new Panda Friendship Envoys will lead to new exchanges and greater cooperation between California and China.”
According to California Chamber of CommerceCalifornia's exports to China totaled $18.15 billion in 2022, with Chinese imports to California reaching $147.6 billion that year.
While visiting China in 2023, Newsom signed a declaration and five memoranda of understanding with China on climate change.
Specifically, our partnership and collaboration will accelerate the transition to clean energy, including offshore wind, advanced energy storage technologies, and zero-emission vehicles; mitigate carbon emissions and support economic growth, including the role of carbon markets and climate finance; advance measures that reduce non-CO2 emissions, including methane; and build resilience to our changing climate while protecting biodiversity. wrote Newsom in his statement.
China produces 80% solar panels in the world, 80% batteries of the world, 60% windmills of the world, and more more than half of the world's electric vehicles, including 80% world's zero-emission heavy-duty trucks and the world's largest share of electric buses; 2018421,000 of the world's 425,000 electric buses were in China.
The governor's statement also noted that China is expanding its carbon market, suggesting that most aspects of California's green energy revolution originate in the United States. $53 billion From climate change packages to carbon credit mandates and local government electric bus and solar panel operations, U.S. taxpayer and corporate funds could be directed to China.
Newsom's announcement comes amid heightened security concerns about Walz, a native of a small Nebraska town, and his ties to China. Waltz Walz speaks Mandarin and says he has lived in the country and visited 30 times. Walz first visited China around the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre, later telling Congress, according to NBC: “At the time, I believed that diplomacy was going to be multi-layered, certainly people-to-people, and the opportunity to be in a Chinese high school at that critical time seemed really important to me.”
As a teacher, Walz told the Nebraska Star-Herald that he had secured funding from the Chinese government to bring American students to China. He also told the Star-Herald that if [the Chinese] If they had been well led, there would be no limit to what they could accomplish.
Walz and his wife founded a company to take American high school students to China and were married on the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, a decision his wife says was intentional, and honeymooned in China while taking American students on tours.
As a member of Congress, Walz traveled to Tibet and met with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader exiled by China, and served on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which focused on human rights abuses in China, suggesting that Walz's public and close appreciation for China and its people may not extend to his government.
However, as governor of Minnesota, Walz is celebrated by Democrats for his emphasis on green energy, which in today's market means buying equipment from China, a point Republicans have been quick to attack.
Tim Walz is a man who wants to move more and more American manufacturing jobs to China, countered Ohio Senator and Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. If you care about the environment, and I certainly do, why are you moving American manufacturing jobs to the most polluting economy in the world? Why don’t you keep them here?
