Asia-PacificAnalysis

US security adviser Jake Sullivan visits China

Three days of talks will focus on easing tensions in the relationship between the world’s two most powerful countries

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan (left) and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi. Photograph: AP
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan (left) and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi. Photograph: AP
Denis Staunton's picture
Denis Staunton in Beijing
Mon Aug 26 2024 - 13:05

Taiwan, Ukraine and the South China Sea will be on the agenda, along with disagreements over tariffs and trade sanctions, when United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan meets Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Tuesday. But their three days of talks will also focus on easing tensions in the relationship between the world’s two most powerful countries by deepening military-to-military communication and enhancing co-operation on issues such as drug enforcement and artificial intelligence.

Sullivan’s visit is the first by a US national security adviser since Susan Rice came to Beijing in 2016, during Barack Obama’s presidency. But it is the latest in a series of in-depth meetings between Sullivan and Wang, who is a member of the Communist Party leadership body, the politburo, as well as foreign minister.

In briefings in advance of the visit, officials in Beijing and Washington stressed that this week’s talks would not change the fundamentals of the bilateral relationship. Yang Tao, who heads the Chinese foreign ministry’s North American and Oceanian affairs department, said they offered an opportunity to assess progress on agreements reached in San Francisco last November between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden.

“China will focus on expressing serious concerns, stating its firm stance, and making serious demands on issues such as the Taiwan question, development rights, and China’s strategic security. The Taiwan question is the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations,” Xinhua news agency reported him as saying.

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“The US has taken unreasonable measures against China in areas such as tariffs, export controls, investment reviews, and unilateral sanctions, severely damaging China’s legitimate rights and interests. China demands that the US stop politicising and securitising economic and trade issues.”

The US commerce department last Friday added 105 Chinese and Russian entities to an export control list, alleging that Chinese imports were filling critical gaps in Russia’s defence production cycle. China, which claims to be neutral on the war in Ukraine but supports Moscow economically and diplomatically, condemned the latest sanctions as undermining international trade rules and destabilising global supply chains.

A senior White House official said the Beijing meeting was likely to follow the same format as previous meetings between Sullivan and Wang in Vienna, Malta and Bangkok over the past 18 months. These lasted between 10 and 12 hours over two days, covering bilateral and global issues as well as Taiwan.

“We’ve said this before but it bears repeating that US diplomacy and channels of communication do not indicate a change in approach to the PRC. This is an intensely competitive relationship. We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances, and taking the common steps – commonsense steps on tech and national security that we need to take. We are committed to managing this competition responsibly, however, and prevent it from veering into conflict,” the official said.

Hopes of an improved US-China relationship after Biden succeeded Donald Trump in 2021 suffered a setback the following year when former House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. Beijing responded by staging military exercises around the self-governing island that included firing a ballistic missile over it.

Last November’s meeting between the two leaders saw the restoration of a strategic dialogue and co-operation on some bilateral issues.

“It really is about clearing up misperceptions and avoiding this competition from veering into conflict more than anything else,” the White House official said.

“We’re diving into these difficult, tough topics, making sure no misperception, pushing forward some of the work that we have been able to get done together.”