‘To promote China’s polluting industry while destroying California jobs and making everything more expensive, is a text book example of democrat priorities,’ California Rep Doug LaMalfa tells FOX Business
FIRST ON FOX: Several California lawmakers came out swinging after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom promoted a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker during his diplomatic visit to China.
On Tuesday, Newsom traveled to Shenzhen, China, and test-drove a hybrid vehicle manufactured by BYD Company, a massive Chinese manufacturing corporation and automaker. According to a 2019 report published by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, BYD boasts direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s industrial policy apparatus and has received billions of dollars in grants and subsidies from the Chinese government.
Newsom’s visit to Shenzhen came on the second day of his weeklong trip to China. He first traveled to Hong Kong and is set to travel to Beijing, Jiangsu and Shanghai.
The clip of Newsom sparked backlash from California Republicans and was mocked on social media.
“Governor Newsom ought to know that China isn’t a trusted partner and shouldn’t be an example for us to follow,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told FOX Business. “Endorsing Beijing manufacturing – so much of which is stolen from American innovators – may advance partisan climate politics, but it won’t do anything to deliver real prosperity to Californians suffering under the failed policies of Sacramento and the record inflation of Bidenomics.”