Newsom Says the State Dept. Advised He Bring Up Human Rights Issues with China’s VP & FM So He Could Focus on Climate Change with Pres. Xi

EXCERPT:

NEWSOM: “Well, with the foreign minister, it was in the meeting with Xi. I spent an hour with the foreign minister, and that was the appropriate venue on the basis of the conversations I had with the State Department, and on the basis of the fact that that would be a better place to communicate a more nuanced and detailed explanation of our points of view on the issue of human rights and democracy, on issues related to Taiwan, issues related to international and foreign policy more broadly. And we took the limited time we had with Xi, which we were told would be just 20 minutes, and we had the opportunity to extend it to 45, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity in those 20 minutes to reinforce the reason I was there, not as president of the United States, not as secretary of state, but as a governor of one of the largest states and one of the largest economies of the world to focus on low-carbon green growth, and I didn’t want to miss that opportunity and moment to influence this foundational agenda, which is bigger than any situational agenda in our lifetime.”