Beijing, 27 August 2024 (TDI): A top White House official is traveling to China for negotiations on a relationship that has been severely tested during US President Joe Biden’s term in office.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, will be in China from Tuesday to Thursday. He has been Joe Biden’s point person for often unannounced negotiations with the Communist Party’s top foreign policy official to try to manage the growing differences between the two big powers.
The goal of his visit is limited: to maintain communication in a relationship that strained for the better part of a year in 2022-23 and was only nursed back over 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 Joe Biden steps down in January.
Sullivan will hold meetings with Wang Yi, the foreign minister who also holds the more senior title of director of the Communist Party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office.
It’s unusual to hold both posts. Wang had initially resigned as foreign minister, but he returned about seven months later in July 2023 after his successor was removed for reasons that have not been made public.
The Biden administration has taken a tough line on Beijing, viewing it as a strategic competitor, restricting the access of its companies to advanced technology.
Already frosty ties went into a deep freeze after then-Speaker of the House of Representative Nancy Pelosi, a senior US lawmaker, visited Taiwan in August 2022.
Also Read More: China to Discuss Taiwan, Development Rights During Sullivan’s Visit
At a meeting between Sullivan and Wang in Vienna in May last year the two nations launched a delicate process of putting relations back on track. Since then, they have met two more times in a third nation, Thailand and Malta. This week will be their first meeting in Beijing.
China’s Foreign Ministry said this week that ties with the US remain at “a critical juncture.” It noted that the two countries are talking on climate and other issues, but it accused Washington of continuing to constrain and suppress China.
