Newsom Administration Holds Closed-Door ‘Cooperation’ Talks with Chinese Officials

The administration of California Governor Gavin Newsom held closed-door talks on trade cooperation with Chinese officials on Monday, ahead of the anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s massacre at Tiananmen Square.

The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the China-California Business Forum, an annual summit hosted by the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles at the city’s ritzy Biltmore Hotel. That annual gathering gives local and state politicians an opportunity to rub shoulders with their Chinese counterparts.

The Newsom administration’s participation in the meeting comes just ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which is commemorated by Chinese pro-democracy advocates and human rights advocates.

Toks Omishakin, Newsom’s secretary of transportation, is at the forum and spoke at the event’s opening ceremony, according to a copy of the schedule obtained by National Review. It’s not clear if he is also joining the smaller session.

A conference schedule only refers vaguely to the late-afternoon session as a “private bilateral meeting.” But a copy of the guidelines for the meeting, obtained by National Review, describes it as a “Bilateral Meeting of China Provinces and U.S. California Joint Working Group on Trade & Investment Cooperation.”

That’s a diplomatic mechanism that former California Governor Jerry Brown initiated after he met Xi Jinping, then vice president of China, in 2012. Brown subsequently signed an agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce establishing the working group.

The meeting materials state that only invited members of the joint working group and “select representatives” may attend, without listing the attendees.

High-level state government officials have attended the event previously, such as California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, who met with the vice governor of Jiangsu province at the 2023 forum.

Another attendee of the forum this year is Christine Peterson, the official who oversees international trade in the office of LA Mayor Karen Bass.

The Chinese delegation this year includes officials from Fujian and Heilongjiang provinces and municipal officials from the coastal Fujianese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou.

Numerous Chinese officials from various trade promotion offices are also participating in the summit, including the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Sponsors of the summit include China’s BYD electric vehicle company, consulting giant EY, the China General Chamber of Commerce USA, several Chinese airlines and banks, and Chinese government agencies, including the China National Tourist Office and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

In a 2022 public warning, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that state and local officials are at risk of being manipulated to support the Chinese government’s agenda, particularly through trade and investment. “Financial incentives may be used to hook U.S. state and local leaders, given their focus on local economic issues,” the bulletin said.

But Newsom has deepened his state’s ties to China, despite growing federal concern about Beijing’s efforts to co-opt state and local officials.

In late 2023, he traveled to the country, holding meetings with the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries — a CCP agency that the intelligence community warns is tasked with furthering those cooptation efforts.

Newsom played a central role in welcoming CCP leader Xi Jinping to San Francisco for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit the following month.

Six months later, Newsom teamed up with the association to host a dialogue event in San Francisco with officials from Hong Kong and Guangdong province.

Newsom cabinet official Amy Tong attended CPAFFC events in Washington State and Beijing last year.

“Governor Newsom has earned the pole position as Xi Jinping’s leading man in the United States,” said Michael Lucci, the founder of State Armor, an advocacy group that advances counter-Beijing policies in state legislatures.

“California’s leadership undermines America’s broader national security by prioritizing engagement with Chinese entities that are back-stopped by China’s military, intelligence, and influence networks over building resilient supply chains with American treaty allies. It’s unfathomable how California imagines it upholds liberal values by engaging a regime involved in genocide, environmental degradation, party state, ethnocentrism, and general belligerence around the globe,” he added.

Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Jimmy Quinn is the national security correspondent for National Review. 

Reprinted with permission from National Review by Jimmy Quinn.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.