IN a Shenzhen Daily video that garnered tens of thousands of views on YouTube and Chinese social media, California Governor Gavin Newsom cheerfully test-drives a cutting-edge new energy vehicle produced by Shenzhen-based BYD, marveling as the Yangwang U8 does a tank turn.

“This is another leap in technology, the next-level leap,” Newsom told reporters during his visit to a bus depot in Shenzhen last Tuesday. He was also visibly impressed by Shenzhen’s all-electric bus fleet. “To be able to scale this kind of bus network throughout the entire city in just a few years is extraordinary. We have a lot of aspirations similarly in California, but I’ve never seen it done at this scale at this level,” Newsom said.

Newsom should be aware that in the current toxic climate of China bashing among U.S. politicians, praising anything about China will draw barrages of criticism back home. His complimentary remarks in Shenzhen generated goodwill in China but immediately attracted vile attacks from Republican lawmakers.

“Governor Newsom is more interested in promoting Chinese companies than American,” Doug LaMalfa, a Republican lawmaker from California, said in a statement to FOX Business. “Ultimately, anything produced in China will be dirtier and produced with potential slave labor,” he unabashedly claimed. Another Republican congressman, Michelle Steel, commented: “It is slap in the face to Californians to see Gov. Newsom promote the CCP’s [CPC’s] electric cars, built off the backs of slave labor.”

Newsom’s visit to China is not only a brave adventure carrying the risk of political backlash at home, but also a pragmatic and ambitious move aimed to help tackle climate change, which poses an existential threat to humanity. “California is using our time in China to fight pollution globally by collaborating on climate policies,” his office tweeted last Wednesday, adding that during his visit to Guangzhou, the governor signed a new deal with Guangdong to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fund climate programs.

California, often plagued by frequent wildfires, droughts, floods and extreme heat, is on the frontline of climate change. This U.S. state leads the U.S. in its transition to green energy, and renewable energy has become California’s fastest-growing business. The “Golden State” has also doubled down on clean energy, implementing a US$10 billion package to subsidize electric car purchases while expanding the charging infrastructure.

In Shenzhen, Newsom was impressed by the city’s new energy technologies, calling them “a preview for things to come.” Shenzhen now has about 24,000 new energy-related enterprises, contributing 15% to the city’s GDP, according to former Shenzhen Vice Mayor Tang Jie. The city produced 874,700 new energy vehicles last year, a 170% growth from the previous year, and its lithium battery industry reported 607 billion yuan (US$82.98 billion) in output, a 26.61% year-on-year increase.

Both Shenzhen and California have much to learn from each other and much to cooperate on.

Newsom, a potential 2028 U.S. presidential candidate, has made breakthroughs beyond his green energy agenda. His weeklong diplomacy venture culminated during his visit to Beijing on Wednesday when he was granted a surprise audience with President Xi Jinping, the first time the leader of the world’s second-biggest economy has met the governor of a U.S. state in more than six years. Xi told Newsom that he hoped the governor’s visit would help promote ties between their countries, and said climate change could become a “new bright spot” in the relationship between the two sides. The Chinese president also recalled his trip to San Francisco during his first visit to the U.S. 38 years ago.

Displaying a similar level of amity, Newsom also tried to scale down geopolitical tensions. “The more successful China is, the more successful we all will be,” Newsom told Chinese and U.S. media in Beijing. “Divorce is not an option” when it comes to the world’s two largest economies, he added.

Before departing for Washington, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi told Newsom his visit is an “ice-breaking journey.” Newsom was similarly optimistic, telling CNN that his meeting with Xi was “indicative of a thawing” in the frosty ties between the two countries.

Yet any expectation for a full detente would be too premature given the fact that the Biden administration still shows no letup in restricting exports of crucial technologies to China, and China remains the uncontested bogeyman for American politicians seeking to win over voters.

If U.S. politicians were brave enough to pay a visit to Shenzhen as Newsom did, their visits would reshape their outdated and biased perspectives on China. In BYD factories, they will see robots and humans working in a decent environment, instead of “slaves” as they have imagined.