Biden’s Adviser Meets Top Chinese Diplomat to Manage Tensions
(Bloomberg) -- US President Joe Biden’s top national security aide Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, as the world’s two largest economies seek to manage their rivalry through dialogue.
Sullivan became the first US national security advisor to visit China since 2016 on Tuesday, as he shook hands with the Asian nation’s top diplomat at a lakeside hotel on the outskirts of the Chinese capital.
The senior officials will hold two days of meetings to discuss a wide range of contentious issues, including Beijing’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and Washington’s tech curbs on China. Despite that, both sides expressed a desire to stabilize relations that sank to new lows during the Biden administration.
“President Biden has been very clear in his conversations with President Xi that he is committed to managing this important relationship responsibly,” Sullivan told reporters before a meeting set to be followed by a working dinner.
Wang stressed “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation” in the world’s most-important bilateral relationship.
“Over the past few years, bilateral relations have gone through twists and turns,” Wang said. This week’s talks aim to help both nations implement the agreement reached in San Francisco last year, he added, referring to a leaders’ pledge to steady ties, which were rocked after an alleged Chinese spy balloon drifted over US territory.
Sullivan’s trip comes months before the US presidential vote in November that pits Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump. While both candidates are set to maintain a tough position on the world’s No. 2 economy, the Republican has threatened a blanket 60% tariff on Chinese exports.
The senior Biden administration official is likely trying to “Trump-proof” the groundwork he’s laid to stabilize ties with China, Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of international relations at Shanghai’s East China Normal University, said ahead of the visit.
“Sullivan wants to consolidate now,” he added, “and do so in ways that withstand a new administration and without provoking an unacceptable conflict in the meantime.”
Sullivan is expected to raise concerns over China’s continued backing of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine and restate Washington’s positions on the South China Sea and Taiwan, where Beijing has territorial disputes. He will aim to make clear he won’t speak for the next administration, whoever may win, Bloomberg News earlier reported, citing a senior US official who asked not to be named.
President Xi Jinping’s officials will bring up issues related to Taiwan — the self-ruled island China claims as its own — and broach US measures against Beijing including tariffs, export controls and sanctions, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Beijing has long complained about US efforts to cut off China from advanced tech, including semiconductors, and about the White House’s moves to work with allies on security and economic issues. Canada announced it will impose tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, aluminum and steel hours before Sullivan arrived in Beijing.
Sullivan and Wang have met face-to-face every few months as part of Biden’s push to keep open lines of communication despite friction with China, in a mechanism known as the “strategic channel.”
US participants in the Tuesday meeting included Sullivan, Ambassador Nicholas Burns and Daniel Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The Chinese side was represented by Wang and Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ning, among others.
(Updates with more details.)
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