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(LibertySons.org) – Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom and his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, visited the Beijing Yuying School on October 27 because of the institution’s notable Farm-to-School program. Siebel Newsom has championed a similar program in California since 2019. During the visit, the governor played pick-up basketball with some students. Yet, things took a somewhat comic turn when Newsom committed an egregious foul while driving for the hoop, plowing into a child who successfully stopped his forward progress as they both toppled to the ground — fortunately, neither sustained injuries.
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom plows through a small child during a game of basketball in communist China pic.twitter.com/Kb9839BNq1
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 29, 2023
The stop at the school was a light-hearted break from a week of intense meetings primarily centered on climate-change issues. On October 25, Newsom met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Vice President Han Zheng, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Zheng Shanjie, China’s Chairman for Development and Reform. Nicholas Burns, the US Ambassador to China, joined the governor in the talks.
While national tensions between the US and China have increased, China readily welcomed the California governor. Newsom followed in the footsteps of Govs. Jerry Brown (D) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (R ) who initially established climate cooperation with Beijing more than a decade ago. During a visit to Shanghai on October 29, Newsom noted the efforts of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein when she served as San Francisco’s mayor and initiated a sister-city relationship with the Chinese city.
Newsom and Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng signed a MOU to protect the environment, combat climate change, advance strategies for climate adaptation and resilience, and accelerate clean transportation goals. Both Newsom and Zheng agreed to work on developing low-carbon transportation, notably including clean ports and green shipping technologies.
While Newsom touted no less than five climate agreements with Chinese officials during his brief trip, pundits criticized the governor’s failure to address human rights issues with China or provide adequate US press access to his meeting with Xi. They also called foul on his shameless use of the trip to raise his political profile as a future presidential contender and his creation of a few questionable photo ops, like the one playing basketball.
~Here’s to Our Liberty!
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