Newsom greets Xi at San Francisco airport before critical Biden meeting

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) warmly welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to San Francisco amid the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and Xi’s highly anticipated meeting with President Joe Biden.

Newsom greeted the Chinese delegation on San Francisco International Airport’s tarmac with his wife, first lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

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Newsom and Xi spent time together last month in Beijing during the governor’s trip. The White House was grilled this week on its knowledge of Newsom’s meetings with Xi.

“We had a heads up,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. “We got a readout. In fact, Ambassador Nick Burns accompanied that delegation on that meeting. So, it was fully coordinated between the governor’s office and the U.S. State Department.

“Of course, I won’t get into the details of that because those were private diplomatic conversations,” Sullivan continued. “But we’ve had a good opportunity to get a download, as we have from Sen. [Chuck] Schumer‘s [D-NY] bipartisan delegation. And Sen. Schumer and I actually just spoke today about some of the outcomes of that conversation, which are feeding into work the president will do this week and hopefully help result in some tangible progress.”

Newsom garnered headlines for his trip to Beijing in October, where he met with Xi and other Chinese officials on climate and economic issues but notably tripped over a Chinese child during a game of basketball.

Newsom joked earlier this week about critics complaining San Francisco had been cleaned up for Xi’s visit.

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“I know folks say, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all these fancy leaders are coming into town,'” Newsom said. “That’s true because it’s true.”

“If you have people over at your house, you are gonna clean up the house,” he added.