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CounterCurrent: China Edition
California is in Cahoots with China on Climate Policy
Higher education partnerships between America and China are hurting America's economy while benefitting Beijing

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CounterCurrent: China Edition is a monthly newsletter of the National Association of Scholars uncovering and highlighting the effects of the Chinese Communist Party's influence on American education.
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Category: China, Foreign Influence, Higher Education;
Reading Time: ~4 minutes
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** California is in Cahoots with China on Climate Policy ([link removed])
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Back in 2012, Donald Trump posted ([link removed]) on Twitter that the “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” This idea of climate change politics being more about economic warfare than saving any ecosystem has been a staple of Trump-era politics. In 2016, Hillary Clinton used this tweet to mark Trump as a climate-change denier. This year, Trump withdrew ([link removed]) the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, stating the “United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.” We have often discussed Chinese influence in American higher education, but rarely its relation to climate change. Through partnerships between China’s Tsinghua University and the University of California, California’s Democrats are manufacturing science and policy to
justify costly electric vehicle (EV) mandates that hurt America’s economy and benefit Beijing.

California was called ([link removed]) a “land of fruits and nuts” starting in 1932, and was called this for the quality of its agriculture rather than any politics. The state’s fruits and nuts are pretty good, particularly its medjool dates. More recently, the Golden State has become a Mecca for inspiring policy related to climate change and emissions standards. In 2017, then-California governor Jerry Brown and the head of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) traveled ([link removed].) to Beijing to meet with Chinese manufacturers in order to accelerate a transition to zero-emissions vehicles. California not only looked to China for a supply of EVs, but it also looked to Beijing for how
to mandate its way around the market by demanding ([link removed]) all new cars in the state be electric by 2035.

High politics is different from the slow grind of policy. The former is flashy, while the latter is not. Governor Brown’s trip led to the creation of the “China-US ZEV Policy Lab” at the University of California Davis (UC Davis) in order to deepen ([link removed].) relationships between China’s vehicle industry and the firms that supply their needed batteries. The “ZEV Policy Lab” at UC Davis is more than just a think tank; rather, it is uniquely constituted to push policy by exploiting academic credentialism and regulatory mandate. The center is part of a larger initiative
([link removed].) housed throughout the University of California system called the California-China Climate Institute.

This subnational agreement between California and a foreign power is based ([link removed].) in UC Berkeley’s School of Law and its own Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, and the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at China’s Tsinghua University. This is precisely the kind of institutional arrangement suited to take policy informed by a foreign power’s university, translate its research across an international boundary, repackage it as legal theory, and then use it to pressure willing lawmakers. California’s government, dominated by Democrats, also may not know that Tsinghua is not a normal university.

Tsinghua, the alma mater of Chinese President Xi Jinping, is a premier university known for funneling graduates into the elite echelons of the People's Liberation Army and the Chinese Communist Party. Tsinghua is not only involved ([link removed]) in nuclear weapons development but also in artificial intelligence, guidance systems, and economic espionage. In 2018, Tsinghua was involved ([link removed]) in cyberattacks targeting the U.S. energy industry, telecommunications, and government. On climate change, Tsinghua University also works ([link removed]) with Harvard’s Belfer Center to promote carbon net-zero policies. Xie Zhenhua, who worked
([link removed].) with Jerry Brown to found the climate initiative, had a close relationship with United States climate envoy John Kerry and also promoted ([link removed]) the Paris Climate Accords alongside the concept of a “greener” Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chinese-California climate change relationship, facilitated by Tsinghua University, also included Chinese EV companies ([link removed].) such as BYD, the Beijing Auto Group, Yangtze Motors, Great Wall, Geely, and Dongfeng Xiao Kang in order to discuss ([link removed].) “plans for developing new models of zero-emission vehicles and support needed to enter the U.S. market.” In other words, California was in discussions to help foreign automakers enter the American market. Worse,
California solidified this relationship by later implementing the 2035 pro-EV mandate that would favor these same companies over American manufacturers. China could hardly ask for more willing partners than California’s Democratic Party or for a better vehicle to produce politicized science and law than the University of California.

The ties between China and California politics have only been confirmed under the leadership of Gavin Newsom. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsom penned ([link removed]) a deal with BYD worth $1.4 billion for protective equipment. Ke Li, the head of BYD’s auto subsidiary, donated ([link removed]) $40,000 to Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign. BYD also manufactures shoddy EV buses ordered ([link removed]) by Democratic-led cities such as Los Angeles. Topping it off, BYD is heavily financed ([link removed]) by the Chinese government and has come under scrutiny
([link removed]) for human rights abuses related to its battery supply chains. Tsinghua University is a primary training source ([link removed]) for BYD’s workforce.

In sum, Trump is right about China’s interest in using climate change to its economic advantage. China controls ([link removed].) about 90 percent of the rare-earth elements needed for EV batteries. BYD alone has factories worldwide to support China’s Belt and Road Initiative. What makes China’s passion about climate change suspect is its hypocrisy. China is the world’s largest ([link removed]) emitter of greenhouse gasses. As it is, any emissions California reduces are more than replaced ([link removed]) by China’s pollution. American consumers, and Californians in particular, are enriching China while making sacrifices that make little economic
sense. At the same time, California climate policy tends to get replicated by other states. The recent tariffs ([link removed]) that the new Trump administration volleyed against Beijing are part of a larger chess game in which climate change is just another piece. As for California, it looks to be on China’s side. The fact that California is working with Tsinghua University, a university designated ([link removed]) to facilitate technology transfer, nearly confirms it.

Until next week.

Ian Oxnevad

Senior Fellow for Foreign Affairs and Security Studies
National Association of Scholars
Read the Article ([link removed])
For more on foreign influence, current news, and higher ed:
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February 19, 2025


** Universities Falsely Certified Compliance with Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws—Could Their DEI Sins Cost Them Millions? ([link removed])
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Glen Kissel

Though it is an untested and complicated area of the law, this article considers how private and public universities could face huge damage claims under potential False Claims Act filings for any past race and sex preferences conducted under the guise of DEI.

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February 11, 2025


** No Borders, No Merit, No Justice: The Bizarre Philosophy of Our Intellectual Elite ([link removed])
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John Staddon

Various reasons have been suggested for Sandel’s popularity in the PRC. He is a brilliant lecturer, skilled in guiding, perhaps manipulating, his audience; he writes well. It’s easy to see why students, even Chinese students, find him engaging.

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June 15, 2022


** Report: After Confucius Institutes ([link removed])
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Rachelle Peterson, Ian Oxnevad, and Flora Yan

This report documents the new ways in which the Chinese government exerts undue influence on American colleges and universities.


** About the NAS
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