The US and China need to turn down the heat, says California governor Gavin Newsom: 'Divorce is not an option'
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the US and China need to turn down the heat on bilateral tensions, per CNN.
- "Divorce is not an option," Newsom told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in a Wednesday podcast.
Tensions between the US and China may be high, but "divorce is not an option," California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in a Wednesday podcast.
Newsom summed up his thoughts after meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping last Wednesday during a week-long visit to the country. His office said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the trip was focused on climate action, economic development, tourism, and "working to actively combat xenophobia."
"We've got to turn down the heat. We've got to manage our strategic differences. We've got to reconcile our strategic red lines," Newsom told CNN.
Newsom is the first American governor to meet Xi in more than six years amid strained relations between the US and China over a range of issues — including strategic competition in the tech space, geopolitics, and trade.
California — which accounts for 14% of the US GDP in the first quarter of 2023 — has a lot at stake. China is the state's largest trading partner, with nearly $166 billion in two-way trade in 2022, according to official state statistics.
But Newsom told CNN his meeting with Xi is an indication that there's some thawing in the frosty relationship between the world's top two economies. The California governor's meeting with Xi followed a meeting between Xi and a group of US senators in early October.
Analysts read the meetings as signs that the US and China are both seeking to improve testy ties.
"California Governor Gavin Newsom's trip to China was an important indicator of Beijing's attempts to lay the groundwork for Xi's visit to San Francisco next month for the APEC summit, notably through lower-level forms of bilateral engagement," analysts from Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy, wrote in a Friday note. They were referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco next month.
The two countries are now working on a meeting between Xi and US President Joe Biden at the summit, Reuters reported on Friday, citing American officials.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.