Top Biden official meets President Xi in China visit to manage ties ahead of US election

Speaking with reporters after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of a three-day Beijing trip on Aug 29, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said such diplomatic efforts are meant to responsibly manage a competitive relationship.

Lim Min Zhang

Lim Min Zhang

The Straits Times

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President Xi Jinping meets with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Aug 29, 2024. PHOTO: CHINA DAILY

August 30, 2024

BEIJING – Both the United States and China have signalled that they are looking for stability, as the US nears a period of leadership transition following its presidential election this November.

Speaking with reporters after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of a three-day Beijing trip on Aug 29, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said such diplomatic efforts are meant to responsibly manage a competitive relationship.

Preventing competition from veering into conflict is work that is ongoing, he added. He also pledged to work towards reaching the end of US President Joe Biden’s administration “with the (US-China) relationship on a stable basis, even though we have areas of differences and difficulty”.

Mr Sullivan’s trip to China – the first by a US national security adviser in eight years – comes with the US in the midst of an evenly matched presidential election race between Vice-President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.

Mr Sullivan said the upcoming election was not discussed in his conversations with Chinese leaders – “that’s obviously something for the American people to decide”, he added.

But on whether Chinese officials asked about a potential Harris administration, Mr Sullivan said he was able to share that she has been a “leading member” of Mr Biden’s foreign policy team, even as he would not characterise what their questions on Ms Harris were.

“She shares President Biden’s view that responsibly managing this competition so that it doesn’t veer into conflict or confrontation is essential. She also shares the view that maintaining high-level open lines of communication is the way that you can achieve that.”

Other than meeting Mr Xi, Mr Sullivan also had discussions over two days with top diplomat Wang Yi and met Central Military Commission vice-chairman Zhang Youxia.

Mr Sullivan noted that his visit was meant to help manage ties through the “sensitive period” of an upcoming change in administration.

Observers have said that Beijing does not have a clear preference between the two candidates. A tough stance on China – on issues ranging from trade to technology to Taiwan – has bipartisan support in Washington.

At their meeting on Aug 29, Mr Xi told Mr Sullivan that the US should view China and China’s development with a “positive and rational attitude”, and regard each other’s development as an opportunity rather than a challenge.

“As two major countries, China and the US should be responsible to history, the people and the world, and become a stable source of world peace and a propeller of common development,” Mr Xi said, according to an official statement.

Mr Sullivan’s meeting with General Zhang earlier on Aug 29 was the first time that a senior Biden administration official had met China’s top-ranked general.

Mr Sullivan and Gen Zhang “recognised the progress in sustained, regular military-to-military communications over the past 10 months”, and planned to hold a theatre commander telephone call in the near future, according to a White House read-out of their meeting.

While Mr Sullivan and Mr Wang exchanged views on a range of international issues ranging from the Ukraine war to the South China Sea to Taiwan a day earlier during their strategic talks, no agreement appeared to have been reached.

Assistant Professor Dylan Loh from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, who specialises in Chinese foreign policy, said the expanded military communications will help in “adding extra layers to prevent any sort of miscalculation or misinterpretation of intentions”, even as tensions in the South China Sea remain a bilateral issue between China and the Philippines.

“I think what the Biden administration wanted to do is to leave the US-China relations in a far better place than when he inherited it, and stability would indeed be that outcome that they are pursuing,” he added.

Professor Zhu Feng, who specialises in international relations at Nanjing University, believes Mr Sullivan’s trip was meant to burnish the US’ foreign policy record on China.

He said: “The US doesn’t want to leave the impression to its allies that it is bent on opposing China.

“Instead, the message it wants to send is that its China policy has been successful, including how it is able to defend US national interests and be strong on China, without creating additional geopolitical turmoil or open conflict.”

He added that in China’s view, a truly successful US policy on China should be primarily based on mutual respect and America’s pragmatic accommodation of a rising China.

“US policy of antagonising China will never be a success. Conversely, it could be a disaster for the region and the world.”

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