US lawmakers seek probe into California-China ties

Washington: Four Republican lawmakers have asked the Justice Department and the State Department to investigate California’s climate agreements with Chinese government-linked bodies, alleging that the state may have intruded on federal foreign policy powers.

Senators Rick Scott, Mike Lee and Marsha Blackburn, along with Representative Young Kim, made the request in a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The lawmakers asked for a formal inquiry into agreements involving California’s regulatory agencies, the University of California system and entities connected to China and the Chinese Communist Party.

They said the arrangements could violate Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution. The provision prohibits states from entering treaties, alliances or confederations and restricts agreements with foreign powers without congressional consent.

“If Governor Newsom would like to assume foreign affairs authorities constitutionally vested in the federal government, that option, however quixotic, ill-conceived, and downright laughable, is theoretically available to him,” the lawmakers wrote.

“As it stands, however, he is likely violating the Constitution, serving as China’s useful pawn while destroying the pocketbooks of millions of hardworking Americans,” they added.

The lawmakers based several of their claims on a National Association of Scholars report. They said the report documented a years-long pattern in which former Governor Jerry Brown and Governor Gavin Newsom linked California climate regulators with Chinese institutions.

The letter cited a 2013 memorandum signed by Brown and Xie Zhenhua, then head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission. It said the agreement covered carbon reduction, emissions trading and electric vehicles.

California’s Air Resources Board entered a separate memorandum with the Chinese agency that year, according to the letter. The lawmakers also pointed to a zero-emission vehicle policy laboratory operated by the University of California-Davis and a Chinese government automotive research centre.

They cited a 2015 agreement between the University of California system and Tsinghua University. The lawmakers alleged that Tsinghua has links to China’s military-civil fusion programme, advanced defence laboratories and projects associated with missile and nuclear technology.

The letter also focused on Brown’s visit to Beijing in 2017 after President Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. Brown met Chinese President Xi Jinping and signed agreements covering clean technology and energy cooperation, the lawmakers said.

They also raised concerns about the California-China Climate Institute, established in 2019 and later codified into state law by Newsom. The institute was launched under Brown and Xie, China’s former climate envoy, and is based at the University of California-Berkeley.

The lawmakers said Newsom met Xi and other senior Chinese officials during a 2023 visit and signed a memorandum calling for California agencies and Chinese central planners to develop a joint action plan.

Their requests include possible civil litigation against California and the University of California regents. They also sought records from the governor’s office, state regulatory agencies and university-linked climate organisations.

The lawmakers asked for a Foreign Agents Registration Act review and an FBI counterintelligence assessment of any links involving Chinese intelligence or United Front entities. They also called for an export-control review of technology exchanges involving batteries, connected vehicles, offshore wind, hydrogen and grid-management software.

“We cannot allow a rogue state government to place its regulators and flagship university in the service of a hostile power’s industrial strategy,” the lawmakers wrote. The material released by Scott’s office did not include responses from Newsom, Brown, the University of California or the Chinese government.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have grown increasingly contentious over trade, technology, national security, Taiwan and human rights. Climate change has remained one of the limited areas in which US and Chinese officials have continued seeking cooperation despite those wider tensions.

IANS