BEIJING (news agencies) — Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday in Beijing, on a visit with the stated aim of keeping communications open between the two powers, as the relationship between China and the United States has become increasingly tense in recent years.
Sullivan, on his first trip to China in his capacity as the main adviser to President Joe Biden on U.S. national security issues, has met with senior Chinese officials including Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a senior general of the Central Military Commission.
China and the U.S. have become increasingly at odds over various issues, starting with a trade war dating back to 2018, and which now encompasses global security matters, such as China’s claims over the South China Sea, and industrial policy on things like automobile and solar panel manufacturing. Sullivan’s trip this week is meant to keep the tensions from growing further.
“We believe that competition with China does not have to lead to conflict or confrontation. The key is responsible management through diplomacy,” he told reporters as he made ready to depart Beijing on Thursday evening.
Both sides said Thursday that they remain committed to managing the relationship. Xi and Biden met in San Francisco last November in an effort to improve ties.
“Although the situations of the two countries and China-U.S. relations have changed greatly, China’s goal of being committed to the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations has not changed,” Xi said.
“President Biden is committed to responsibly managing this consequential relationship to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict or confrontation, and to work together where our interests align,” Sullivan said.
Beijing and Washington will also plan for a phone call in the coming weeks between Xi and Biden, the White House said Wednesday. The White House statement said that both sides would keep lines of communication open. Xi said that he is willing to continue communications with Biden, according to CCTV.
Sullivan said the two leaders might meet in person before Biden leaves the Oval Office, possibly at the next Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.
Xi and Sullivan’s meeting also touched on the issues of American citizens detained in China; Taiwan; and the clashes between the Chinese and Filipino coast guards in the South China Sea.
The two also discussed China’s support for Russia, as a recent U.S. assessment found that the country was exporting technology that Russia uses to manufacture missiles, tanks and other weaponry. They also discussed efforts to end the Ukraine war, but Sullivan said they did not make any progress on that issue.
Sullivan said that the two sides planned to hold a military theater commander phone call in the near future.
China has rapidly expanded its military, and there are concerns that Taiwan and the South China Sea are becoming flashpoints, underscoring the importance of military-to-military communications that were previously broken off, but were reinstated after the Xi-Biden summit last November.
A decades old-issue, Taiwan in recent years has re-emerged as a critical issue as the island’s ties with China became increasingly strained over Chinese claims that Taiwan is part of China.
Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy that split from authoritarian communist China in 1949, has rejected Beijing’s demands that it accept unification with the mainland by peace or by force. The U.S. is obligated under a domestic law to provide the island with sufficient hardware and technology to deter invasion.
Sullivan also met China’s vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, on Thursday morning, in a rare meeting to discuss communication between the world’s two biggest militaries.
Zhang raised the issue of Taiwan, saying it was a critical issue.“China demands that the United States stop military collusion between the U.S. and Taiwan, stop arming Taiwan and stop spreading false narratives about Taiwan,” according to a Chinese Defense Ministry statement of the meeting.
Zhang has spoken in the past of Beijing’s determination to take control of Taiwan. At an international naval gathering earlier this year in northeast China, Zhang said China would strike back with force if its interests came under threat.
He said that China’s territorial sovereignty “brooks no infringement and its core interests cannot be challenged. We do not provoke trouble, but we will never flinch in face of provocation. The Chinese military will resolutely defend the reunification and interest of the motherland.”
The White House statement said Sullivan “underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
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