California’s Democrats Advance China’s Energy Dominance

Many Americans underestimate China’s threat to the United States. That threat includes the world’s most aggressive military build-up and provocations in the South China Sea; support for hostile regimes in Russia, North Korea and Iran; cyber operations; its global “Belt and Road” investment strategy; funding Code Pink, anti-ICE, No Kings, and other progressive movements; theft of intellectual property from U.S. universities and businesses; purchasing farmland adjacent to U.S. bases; and infiltrating think tanks and research centers.

Trump knows about the China threat, even while moderating his rhetoric before a visit

Though Donald Trump moderated his language in the run-up to his summit last week with Xi Jinping and in his public comments about the summit, the FBI under both the Biden and Trump administrations has warned that:

The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States. Confronting this threat is the FBI’s top counterintelligence priority.

Then-CIA Director William Burns said in 2023 that:

China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and increasingly the … power to do so.

According to the Harvard Kennedy School, China has taken the lead in some of the foundational technologies of the 21^st century and, on current trajectories, will overtake the U.S. within the next decade on others.

China is the dominant exporter of clean technology, accounting for 80% of the world’s solar power modules and batteries, 70% of electric vehicles (EVs), and the largest shares of heating, cooling, and wind power equipment, as well as numerous categories of computer chips. It holds one-third of the globe’s rare-earth elements (REEs), used in batteries, computer screens, high-tech weapons, EVs, and other advanced technologies. It has over half of the world’s REE mining capacity and 90% of its refining capabilities. When China suspended and then restricted REE exports starting last year, it disrupted Western defense and industrial supply chains. No progress restoring REE shipments was announced following the Trump-Xi summit.

The American advantage in traditional energy

By contrast, the United States has substantial natural advantages in traditional energy. China’s goal is to eliminate that advantage, turn the U.S. into a vassal state for China’s clean energy resources, and utilize a chokehold on American energy to embed spyware and dictate terms. Thanks to compliant progressives, China is making substantial progress in achieving its goals, even as it contrarily increases its domestic use of coal and fossil fuels.

“Behind the Climate Curtain,” an extensively sourced report issued today by the National Association of Scholars, observes that

Energy is the prerequisite to economic power. … A great power targeting an opponent’s energy access and controlling how energy is used is one way to emulate Sun Tzu’s adage to subdue an enemy without fighting.

The NAS report unveils China’s extensive influence operation to neutralize America’s natural advantage in energy, particularly by changing U.S. policy.

Its path is through California’s pliable progressive Democratic Party leadership. Because of the state’s technology sector leadership, powerful economy, and large population, California’s standards often become de facto national standards.

Jerry Brown played with China

In September 2013, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown met with the head of China’s Development and Reform Commission to sign a memorandum of understanding for California and China to jointly reduce carbon emissions and energy usage, bolster carbon and methane standards, implement carbon emissions trading systems, expand adoption of EVs, support green energy markets and technology development, and, notably, collaborate in “policy design and rule-making.”

In 2017, Brown met with Xi to expand the collaboration. He signed agreements to bypass the first Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. California agreed to partner with China to promote climate change policy, energy storage and grid modernization technologies, new-energy and zero-emission vehicles, low-carbon urban development, and emissions trading systems; to create a California-China Clean Technology Partnership Fund; and to develop information technologies.

By 2018, California’s public employee retirement system (CalPERS) invested more than $2 billion in 172 Chinese companies, including firms with ties to the Chinese military and with records of environmental and human rights abuses. Within two years, CalPERS had to divest many of these investments because of U.S. sanctions.

In 2019, the University of California and China’s Tsinghua University agreed to collaborate on climate change policy. Tsinghua is an odd source for advice on policy. It has been tied to cyberattacks against American companies and government institutions in the United States, Kenya, Brazil, and Mongolia. It has developed technology used by China in human rights violations, and it houses multiple laboratories focused on defense technologies.

California China Climate Institute? Seriously?

Brown’s diplomacy with China culminated in 2021 when California enacted legislation to authorize the California China Climate Institute, transitioning a partnership between universities into a de facto “treaty” between California and China centered on the development of policies that support the Chinese clean tech sector.

In October 2023, Brown’s successor, Gavin Newsom, visited China to meet with Xi. Newsom highlighted California’s close ties with China, observing that: “The only way we can solve the climate crisis is to continue our long-standing cooperation with China.” During the trip, California and China entered into yet another MOU to advance joint research, development, and innovation of clean energy, including joint policy announcements. Newsom committed California to work with China’s central planners to decarbonize the power sector by transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy, increase the use of EVs, strengthen cooperation on clean energy, accelerate the deployment of wind technology, and share information on clean energy technologies.

Energy Foundation China is a U.S. nonprofit led by a Chinese national with strong ties to China’s Ministry for State Security who also works at Tsinghua University, where he is required to “firmly serve the party, government and people’s political orientation.” EFC donates heavily to American universities and organizations for research that promotes alternative energies, including policies that increase sales for Chinese manufacturers and energy costs for American consumers and reduce American energy independence.

Attacks on coal and cooking with gas

In 2021, EFC gave Rocky Mountain Institute $820,000 to support education and analysis to phase out coal. One year later, RMI reported that gas stoves were linked to childhood asthma and were similar to secondhand smoking. The Biden administration cited that research when it proposed to ban gas stoves.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is one of the main beneficiaries of EFC funding. Founded in 1970, the NRDC is a leader in climate litigation and policy. Its relationship with China began in 1991. In 2005, it opened a fully staffed Beijing office, where it focuses on “climate, clean energy, environmental protection and urban solutions.” NRDC’s former CEO, Gina McCarthy, served in the Biden administration as the first-ever National Climate Adviser. Among numerous actions advancing Chinese interests, the NRDC used litigation and diplomacy to foster agreements that advance purchases by California utilities of alternative energy technologies and equipment from Chinese suppliers.

China affiliations with American universities

UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment is affiliated with EFC and other Chinese-funded groups. Its co-director, Alex Wang, was previously an NRDC attorney. The Emmett Institute has sought to reshape California’s environmental policy. In September 2019, Wang led a two-week tour introducing Chinese and U.S. regulators. In 2020, with funding from EFC, Wang and the NRDC co-authored a report that recommended quotas for EV adoption, disincentives for gas-powered vehicles, zero-emission building standards, and an economy-wide carbon cap-and-trade system. Two years later, on behalf of the NRDC, the Emmett Institute urged Los Angeles to phase out the largest urban oil field in the U.S.

In 2025, advised by state agencies, the Port of Long Beach entered into an MOU with Shanghai and Chinese businesses to build a “green shipping corridor.” Chaired by a state-owned Chinese firm that the Pentagon has identified as a commercial asset for Chinese intelligence and military purposes, the project will deliver substantial commercial contracts to Chinese companies.

The NAS report describes how California uses regulation and mandates to create demand for products that are predominantly developed and controlled by China. The report also identifies numerous graduates of Tsinghua and programs funded by China hired for policy-making positions in California agencies that regulate energy, transportation, and the environment. In those positions, they bolster China’s efforts to depress traditional energy production in favor of alternative energy.

Making California dependent

Newsom has closed down most California drilling, refineries, and pipelines. As a result, the state now imports most of its fuel, imperiling supplies, and its energy costs have skyrocketed at a rate well above the national average. Concurrently, California’s use of batteries – most of which are manufactured in China – has increased by 1,944%.

NAS believes that some of California’s agreements with China may violate constitutional prohibitions in Art. I, §10 on states entering into foreign treaties. They certainly violate principles of transparency and sound policy. NAS recommends federal investigations, and that regulators must be U.S. citizens. More broadly, Americans have to recognize that Chinese influence operations are for China’s benefit. Giving away America’s comparative advantages while enriching China and advancing its technology prowess is folly, betrayal – or both.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.