U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan traveled to Beijing on Tuesday to begin three days of talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. This is their fifth meeting in less than a year and a half, and it is the first official trip to China by a U.S. national security advisor since 2016. It is unclear whether Sullivan will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit.
Sullivan reportedly aims to continue the Biden administration’s work of maintaining communication between the two sides, and no major announcements are expected. However, the meeting could help lay the groundwork for a possible final summit between Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden before the latter leaves office in January; the two cabinet officials were key to organizing last November’s leaders’ talks in California. A final Xi-Biden summit could occur at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Peru or the G-20 summit in Brazil, both of which will be held in November.
U.S. Republicans have “attacked the Biden administration’s China talks as a wasted effort—a performance of diplomacy without substance,” FP’s Lili Pike wrote in China Brief. But engagement has already borne some fruit—including on climate change and artificial intelligence regulation—and Sullivan indicated on Tuesday that Washington and Beijing hope to ensure that competition between the two great powers doesn’t veer into a larger conflict. “President Biden has been very clear in his conversations with President Xi that he is committed to managing this important relationship responsibly,” Sullivan told Wang before their talks began.
Among the top issues on Sullivan’s agenda will be Taiwan and the South China Sea. Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of promoting Taiwanese independence by supplying the island with arms and allowing senior officials to meet, such as when then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August 2022. Taiwan is “the first and foremost red line that must not be crossed,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry warned on Sunday ahead of Sullivan’s trip.
Beijing’s claims over disputed areas of the South China Sea, such as the Second Thomas and Sabina shoals, will also likely feature in this week’s conversations. On Sunday and Monday, Chinese coast guard vessels and Philippine ships collided; Beijing and Manila blame each other. Washington has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, and on Tuesday, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it was open to discussing whether the U.S. military should escort Philippine vessels in the South China Sea to prevent future Chinese attacks.
Sullivan will also seek to expand military-to-military talks with China from the theater command-level down to prevent regional conflicts from erupting. And Sullivan is likely to bring up China’s friendship with Russia. U.S. officials have previously warned China against supplying the Kremlin with dual-use technology that can be applied to the battlefield.
Also on the agenda, Sullivan and Wang are expected to discuss fentanyl production. The White House wants Beijing to do more to prevent the development and export of chemicals used to make fentanyl that is then manufactured in Mexico. Fentanyl is the leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States.
The two officials are also likely to address a set of new U.S. controls on exports to China. The restrictions, first announced in October 2022, aim to prevent Beijing from accessing advanced U.S.-made semiconductors that officials say could be used to threaten U.S. national security. However, Beijing accuses Washington of using the controls to unfairly stunt the country’s tech development.
