US national security adviser visits Beijing amid strained relations with China

Hong Kong Free Press

Beijing.-A senior White House official arrived in China on Tuesday for talks on a relationship that has been severely tested under President Joe Biden.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan was greeted at Beijing airport by Yang Tao, head of the North America and Oceania department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns.

Sullivan has been Biden’s point person in often unannounced talks with the Communist Party’s top foreign policy official to try to manage growing differences between Washington and Beijing.

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The aim of his visit, which will last until Thursday, is limited: to try to maintain communication in a relationship that was broken for almost a year in 2022-23 and only recovered over the course of several months.

No major announcements are expected, though Sullivan’s meetings could lay the groundwork for a possible final summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping before Biden leaves office in January.

It is important for the United States and China to avoid any crisis in the remaining months of the Biden administration as it could set the tone for U.S.-China ties in the next one, said Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“The purpose of this visit is not to achieve new breakthroughs or progress, but to continue the stable momentum of China-US relations over the past year through strategic communication, and to avoid new crises in the coming months,” he said.

Sullivan will hold talks with Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party.

Wang is also foreign minister. He had initially resigned when he took office in the party, a more senior post, but returned about seven months later in July 2023 after his successor was dismissed for reasons that have not been made public.

The Biden administration has taken a hard line on China, viewing it as a strategic competitor, restricting its companies’ access to advanced technology and confronting the emerging power as it seeks to exert influence over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Already fragile relations were frozen after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a top U.S. lawmaker, visited Taiwan in August 2022. Hopes of restoring ties were dashed in February when a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew across the United States before being shot down by the U.S. military.

At a meeting between Sullivan and Wang in Vienna in May 2023, the two countries began a delicate process of getting relations back on track. They have since met twice more in a third country, Malta and Thailand. This week they will hold their first talks in Beijing.

China’s Foreign Ministry said this week that relations with the United States remain at “a critical juncture.” It said the two sides are engaged in talks on climate and other issues, but accused the United States of continuing to restrict and suppress China.

Canada announced Monday that it will match the 100% U.S. tariff on imports of electric vehicles made in China, after being encouraged to do so by Sullivan during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet ministers the day before.Infobae.