WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.-China relationship will be defined by strategic competition in the coming decades but must involve engagement when the interests of the two countries align, the U.S. ambassador to China said Friday, one month after President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to stabilize the fraught relations.

Nicholas Burns said the U.S. and China are “vying for global power as well as regional power” as they compete militarily, politically and economically.

“I think we are systematic rivals, if you think about our national security and economic and political interests around the world,” Burns said at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

In the Indo-Pacific region, China “wishes to be the strongest power,” Burns said.

“China has a very different view of global governance and the future of the liberal order,” he said. “And of course, we are attached to a liberal order because it speaks to our values and our interests, and we think this is the best order of the world.”

Yet, the two countries need to work together on issues such as climate change, narcotics, global health and food security, he said.

“No person in their right mind should want this relationship to end up in conflict or in war,” he said. “So we’re going to develop a relationship where we can compete, but, as the president says, to compete responsibly, drive down the probability of a conflict and bring our people together in a balanced relationship is one way to do that.”

Washington is recalibrating its relationship with Beijing after several years of tumult that began with the imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods under the Trump administration. Ties further deteriorated over the COVID-19 pandemic and military tensions in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait.

Last month, Biden met with Xi in Woodside, California, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The two leaders vowed to stabilize relations and agreed to combat illegal fentanyl and reestablish military communications.

Burns said China had begun shutting down some of the black market for fentanyl precursors but he test would be whether the effort would continue. The ambassador said the resumption of military communications was important because the two militaries were operating “in very close proximity to each other” in the South and East China Seas, and communications could help prevent any crisis from getting out of control.

But differences on economic competition and global security remain.

On Thursday night, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the U.S.-China Business Council the Biden administration seeks to strengthen relationships with like-minded nations but also has established economic working groups with China to exchange information.

The Biden administration has kept the tariffs slapped on some Chinese goods by the previous administration and has tightened export controls and investments in high-tech areas such as advanced chips.

Xi also sent a letter to the business council, urging the group and its members to “build more bridges for friendly exchange” and expand cooperation. He vowed to build a better business environment in China.

“The Chinese-style modernization will create more opportunities for global businesses including U.S. companies,” Xi’s letter said.

China’s economy slowed in the third quarter, as global demand for its exports faltered and the ailing property sector sank deeper into crisis.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post US-China relations are defined by rivalry but must include engagement, American ambassador says appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says there’s no chance “on God’s green earth” he’s running for president in 2024, but he wants to make clear that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running, is “weak” and “undisciplined” and “will be crushed by Donald Trump.” DeSantis, meanwhile, likes to mock Newsom’s apparent “fixation” on Florida while insisting that the Democratic governor’s “leftist government” is destroying California.

Welcome to one of the fiercest rivalries in U.S. politics, featuring dueling term-limited governors who represent opposite ends of the ideological spectrum and lead two of the nation’s largest and most influential states. Newsom and DeSantis almost certainly won’t face each other on any ballot in 2024, but in many ways, they are defining the debate from their corners of America as the presidential primary season gets underway.

Newsom addressed both his contempt for DeSantis and loyalty to President Joe Biden — even after Tuesday’s revelations that the president’s son, Hunter, reached a deal with federal prosecutors on federal tax offenses and a gun charge — in an interview just as the Florida governor launched a two-day fundraising trek spanning at least five stops across California.

The Golden State has become one of DeSantis’ favorite punching bags as he tries to avoid a direct confrontation with his chief Republican presidential rival, Trump, and the former president’s escalating legal challenges. “He’s taking his eye off the ball,” Newsom said of DeSantis’ escalating attacks against him. “And that’s not inconsistent with my own assessment of him, which is he is a weak candidate, and he is undisciplined and will be crushed by Donald Trump, and will soon be in third or fourth in national polls.” Representatives for DeSantis did not make the governor available for an interview.

Beneath the war of words, however, strategists in both parties suggest there may be a mutually beneficial dynamic at play. As they jab at each other’s policies and personalities through comments in the press and on social media, the governors are scoring points with their respective political bases, raising money and expanding their national brands. But it’s not all helpful. Newsom, in particular, is facing nagging questions about his presidential ambitions less than a week after DeSantis dared him to “stop pussyfooting around” and launch a primary challenge against Biden. The California governor, whose second and final term concludes at the end of 2026, has seen his national profile grow since he easily beat back a recall attempt in 2021 and cruised to reelection last fall.

He finished the midterm campaign with roughly $16 million in the bank. And in March, he channeled $10 million to a new political action committee he’s calling the Campaign for Democracy. All the while, Newsom’s team has been moving deliberately to avoid the perception that he’s running a shadow presidential campaign just as Biden ramps up his political activities. For example, Newsom’s new PAC is initially focusing on challenging Republican leaders in deep-red states that are largely irrelevant in the 2024 presidential race. He campaigned in Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi in April on his first trip associated with the PAC.

Newsom is expected to avoid battleground states or key presidential primary states for the foreseeable future, his allies say. At the same time, the California governor and his team have been in regular contact with Biden and his top aides, including Jen O’Malley Dillon, who managed the president’s 2020 campaign and serves as deputy White House chief of staff. A Biden campaign official said the president’s team coordinates closely with Newsom. “Newsom is not going to run against Joe Biden and never would.

But life is long, and Newsom is one of the prominent national Democrats. It’s part of that role to have these big national battles,” longtime Newsom adviser and friend Nathan Ballard said of the feud with DeSantis. “There is the 2024 election, and then there is a 2028 election,” Ballard added. Indeed, veteran Democratic consultant Roy Behr, whose clients included former California Sen. Barbara Boxer, said the two governors are engaged in what could become an early preview of the 2028 presidential contest. “It’s not inconceivable that four years from now, these two guys could be their respective parties’ nominees,” he said. In tangling with DeSantis, who is 44, the 55-year-old Newsom is building his national brand and visibility and is “certainly trying to create opportunities for himself.”

Sacramento-based Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta said he expected the ongoing rivalry to continue given that it’s beneficial for both politicians with their core supporters. He described Newsom and DeSantis as “frenemies.” “They both get points off it,” Acosta said. “There is a hard core of voters on both sides who think this is great.” While polling shows that many Democrats don’t want the 80-year-old Biden to seek a second term, Newsom said there are no circumstances in which he would challenge the sitting president of his own party. “Not on God’s green earth, as the phrase goes,” Newsom said in the weekend interview, adding that he would be with Biden on Monday and hosting a fundraiser for him Tuesday. “I have been pretty consistently — including recently on Fox News — making the case for his candidacy.”

On Tuesday, Newsom reaffirmed his support for Biden shortly after news surfaced that the president’s son, Hunter, reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors on charges he failed to pay federal income tax and illegally possessed a weapon. “Hunter changes nothing,” Newsom told the AP, noting that he was spending the day with Biden. DeSantis did not plan to make any public appearances during his California fundraising tour, which included stops in Sacramento and the Bay Area on Monday and continues Tuesday with events planned for San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles.

Over the weekend in Nevada, DeSantis noted that he’s seen a surge of “disgruntled Californians” moving to Florida. “Why would you leave like a San Diego to come to say, Jacksonville, Florida? I see people doing that,” DeSantis told thousands of conservative activists at a weekend gathering close to the California border. “It’s because leftist government is destroying that state. Leftist government is destroying cities all over our country. It’s destroying other states.” Former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt, who hosted the weekend event and leads the pro-DeSantis super PAC, said the policy contrast between the leaders of Florida and California is “a debate that our whole country needs to have.” “California has been the model for many leftist policies.

I would take the contrast between Florida’s policies and its results led by Gov. DeSantis and the California policies, any day of the week,” Laxalt said in an interview. “We can already see what leftist policies do.” Both DeSantis and Newsom took office in 2019 and won reelection for their second and final terms in 2022. While in office, both have been buoyed by multiple billion-dollar budget surpluses and the help of statehouses controlled by their own party that supercharged their agendas.

In California, Newsom expanded the state’s Medicaid program to cover all eligible adults, regardless of their immigration status. He signed a raft of legislation to make it easier to get an abortion, including authorizing $20 million in state spending to help people from other states travel to California. When the U.S. Supreme Court declined to strike down an abortion law in Texas that was enforced by private lawsuits, Newsom signed a similar law in California — only he made it about guns.

And earlier this month, he proposed amending the U.S. Constitution to institute what he called a “reasonable” waiting period for all gun purchases, a ban on so-called assault rifles, universal background checks and raising the minimum age to buy a firearm to 21. “I think Gavin Newsom is a very useful foil for Ron DeSantis, quite frankly,” said Lanhee Chen, a California Republican who attended one of DeSantis’ five California fundraisers this week. “The more kinds of crazy things that Newsom does — at least, crazy in the eyes of Republican voters — the more I think Ron DeSantis frankly benefits as somebody who’s seen as a counterweight to that.”

In Florida, DeSantis has leaned into cultural conservative issues in what he calls his “war on woke.” Earlier this month, his administration flew groups of migrants from Texas to Sacramento to draw attention to the influx of Latin American immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. He did the same last fall, sending dozens of immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, which he often highlights during his stump speeches. DeSantis also signed and then expanded the Parental Rights in Education bill — known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans instruction or classroom discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in Florida public schools for all grades.

He seized control of Disney World’s governing body after the company publicly opposed the law. The Florida governor this year also signed a law banning abortions at six weeks, which is before most women realize they’re pregnant. And he took control of a liberal arts college that he believed was indoctrinating students with leftist ideology. While DeSantis does not have the legal entanglements that Trump faces, Newsom said Democrats may be wrong to assume the former president would be an easier candidate to defeat in the 2024 general election. “I see deep weakness — I refer to it often — weakness with DeSantis masquerading as strength,” Newsom said. “I think he’d be a more favored candidate.

But I’ll leave that judgment to more objective minds.”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Inside the deepening rivalry between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China may be back to talking at a high level, but their battle for global power and influence remains unchecked and mutual suspicion still runs deep.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken set low goals for his visit to Beijing this week, and he met them. About the most the rivals can hope for these days is to stop things getting much worse.

Blinken pointed to difficult days ahead, while China’s foreign ministry warned the relationship was in a downward spiral.

“It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point of instability, and both sides recognized the need to work to stabilize it,” Blinken said of the reason for his trip. “And specifically, we believe that it’s important to establish better lines of communication, open channels of communication, both to address misperceptions, miscalculations and to ensure that that competition doesn’t veer into conflict.”

The two-day visit to the Chinese capital helped restore top-level ties, but China rebuffed a U.S. request to resume military-to-military contacts. Neither government appears convinced of the other’s honesty.

President Joe Biden, speaking Tuesday at a fundraiser for his 2024 reelection, said Chinese President Xi Jinping had been “embarrassed” by the spy balloon Biden ordered shot down over U.S. airspace, an incident that prompted Blinken to cancel an earlier trip to China.

“That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States. And he didn’t know about it,” Biden said. “When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.”

While the two countries say they’re not enemies intent on harming each other, they’re not pretending to be friends.

After meeting with Xi on Monday, Blinken acknowledged entrenched differences. “We have no illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship. There are many issues on which we profoundly, even vehemently, disagree,” he said.

Xi sounded a similar note, but suggested that the rivalry could be overcome.

“The competition among major countries is not in line with the trend of the times and cannot solve the problems of the United States itself and the challenges facing the world,” he told Blinken. “China respects the interests of the United States and will not challenge or supplant the United States. Similarly, the United States should also respect China and not harm its legitimate rights and interests.”

Danny Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia during the Obama administration who is currently vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York, said these so-called “negative assurances” -– that China respects the U.S. and is not looking to displace the United States. and that the U.S. is not trying to contain or hinder China -– are important to prevent a collapse in ties.

“Both sides clearly used the visit to help stabilize the relationship, which has been lurching toward dangerously intense confrontation,” he said. And, although both the U.S. and China mentioned specific disagreements, especially about Taiwan, Russel said that “the public statements by the two sides were notably positive, particularly by recent standards.”

But Washington and Beijing remain deeply suspicious of each other’s actions and intentions.

From the U.S. perspective, China’s rise has challenged its global position.

Washington is racing to repair and shore up its relationships in regions where China has made inroads, particularly Africa and the Indo-Pacific, where the U.S. has opened or plans to open at least five new embassies this year.

Behind the scenes, the U.S. believes China has ulterior and perhaps nefarious motives.

An internal U.S. State Department document prepared earlier this year that focuses on China’s role at the United Nations and other international organizations said Beijing “believes that the People’s Republic of China must dominate and shape international institutions, standards and values in order to advance both its domestic and global agenda.”

“It views the established rules and norms in the U.N. system and other international organizations as privileging Westerns countries, supporting liberal democratic principles, and posing a threat to its monopoly on domestic political power and assertive global ambitions,” said the document, which is marked “SBU,” which means “sensitive but unclassified” and was obtained by The Associated Press.

The document accuses China of having “undertaken a systematic campaign to subvert existing principles and standards, promote authoritarian ideology and policy (and) reprioritize economic development over human rights and democratic governance.”

In addition, it says China is working “to undermine or reshape international law and standards, institutions, and values to legitimize its own development and governance models, including related to human rights (and) using its economic and political influence to compromise institutions’ transparency, effectiveness, independence and alignment with foundational norms and values.”

From the Chinese perspective, the U.S. is clinging to fading glory as the world’s lone superpower, and seeking to sabotage China’s development and growing international stature by sowing mistrust about Beijing’s intentions.

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi demanded on Monday that the U.S. stop “hyping the ‘China threat theory’” and “urged the United States not to project on China the template that a strong country must seek hegemony.”

He also said China should not be judged “in the vein of traditional Western powers,” concluding that a change of perspective “is the key on whether the U.S. policy towards China can truly return to objectivity and rationality.”

The rivals are now trying to negotiate more visits: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang agreed in principle to an invitation to visit Washington and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to visit China later this summer, while there are also discussions about a new meeting between Xi and Biden.

But it’s not clear if China and the U.S. have found any issue of substance they can negotiate about. More talks could help with short-term easing of tensions, but it’s unlikely to change the fact of a global rivalry.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post US and China are talking at a high level again, but their rivalry remains unchecked appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The feud between Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis is getting nastier — and that’s how both of them want it. The two governors have spent more than a year sparring over book bans, abortion, guns and more.

Then yesterday, the California Democrat suggested DeSantis could face state criminal charges after more than a dozen asylum seekers were flown to Sacramento and left at a Catholic church. The flight was similar to one the DeSantis administration facilitated last fall carrying almost 50 mostly Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard that caused a national furor and re-ignited the long-running debate over immigration.

While Newsom has made a habit of publicly attacking his red-state rival, the threat of criminal charges thrust the standoff into even more rhetorically combustible territory now that DeSantis is officially a candidate for the GOP’s 2024 nomination. The conflict between the two men escalated even further after a second flight touched down in Sacramento Monday carrying migrants that California authorities said appeared to have Florida documentation.

In a Monday tweet, Newsom called DeSantis a “small, pathetic man” and asked “kidnapping charges?” while citing California criminal code that states anyone who transports someone “by force or fraud” is guilty of kidnapping. The attacks intensify a mutually-advantageous conflict between Newsom, who leads the largest Democratic stronghold in America and has constructed a national persona around confronting Republicans, and DeSantis, who has made railing against “woke” ideologies and liberal policies a main selling point as he campaigns in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and beyond.

At the same time, it allows both men to highlight their own partisan politics to their respective bases. “The best thing that could happen to Ron DeSantis is the liberal governor of California attacks him as he’s running for president,” said Matt Rexroad, a California-based Republican consultant. “And the best thing for Gavin Newsom, who wants to be plan B for the nomination this time or plan A next time, would be to be attacked by the governor of Florida.” “I’ll call it right now that Governor DeSantis will be making a big deal out of this in Iowa and New Hampshire,” he added. Officials with DeSantis’ administration have not responded to repeated requests for comment.

This is hardly the first time Newsom has publicly excoriated DeSantis. He has lambasted the Florida governor over his policies on education, guns, abortion and more. He launched a committee to buoy Democrats in Florida and other red states. He has simultaneously worked to solidify support for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, including by sending out a fundraising email the same day DeSantis officially entered the race. In May, Newsom directed his staff to demand records from Florida education officials over the Sunshine State’s successful campaign to convince social studies textbook publishers to change their content. Newsom also asked more than a dozen educational publishers to explain whether and how they changed their textbooks under pressure from Florida Republicans, warning in a letter that California would “not be complicit in Florida’s attempt to whitewash history through laws and backroom deals.”

The ceaseless spotlighting helps Newsom trumpet California as a progressive alternative to Republican-leaning Florida — often in emails to donors as he solicits more money for his “Campaign for Democracy” committee. DeSantis jabbed back at Newsom when the Florida governor landed in California in March to deliver a speech and raise money for local Republicans. “I know you guys have a lot of problems out here, but your governor is very concerned about what we’re doing in Florida, so I figured I’d have to come by,” DeSantis told people at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Christian Ziegler, chair of Florida’s Republican Party, on Monday highlighted the influx of people moving to Florida from California, asking “if Gov Newsom is calling Gov DeSantis ‘pathetic’, how should we refer to the Governor of California, who has seen tens of thousands of his own citizens literally flee his failed leadership in order to end up in DeSantis-led Florida?” DeSantis is set to return to California for a fundraising swing later this month, including a planned stop in Sacramento.

Polls show he has slid behind former President Donald Trump as Republicans vie for California’s rich trove of presidential delegates. Newsom’s office did not explain on Monday why the latest flight of asylum seekers would be grounds for state charges, referring questions to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. The attorney general said in a Sunday statement that he was “evaluating potential criminal or civil action against those who transported or arranged for the transport of these vulnerable immigrants” and condemned “state-sanctioned kidnapping.”

Bonta’s office said the first group of migrants arrived with documentation recording their participation in Florida’s “voluntary transportation program” conducted by Vertol Systems Company, Inc., the contractor that conducted the prior flights. Bonta told the New York Times he believed the arrangement “wasn’t fully consensual,” which could be grounds for prosecution. Dan Newman, a political adviser to the governor, said Newsom viewed the flights as “inhumane and potentially illegal.” It also bolsters Newsom’s standing as a combative partisan who is eager to challenge Republicans.

The governor regularly describes this conflict as an existential fight over democracy, and he traveled to DeSantis’ state in April to meet with students at New College, a small liberal arts college in Sarasota that DeSantis has transformed into a conservative institution — and then fundraised off of his visit. Democratic political consultant Garry South said in an interview that Newsom’s threat of prosecution was unlikely to hurt Newsom in deep-blue California. But he argued Newsom had to act to deter more flights. “This was a stunt that plays well in their [Republicans’] home states, I guess,” South said. “But I just don’t think from a human decency standpoint that this can be allowed to become standard operating procedure.”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post ‘Pathetic man’: The California-Florida rivalry just exploded appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.