High-level US and Chinese officials discussed potential talks between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the months ahead as the two countries press ahead on stabilizing communication in their increasingly contentious relationship.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan is wrapping up three days of talks with counterparts in Beijing, where he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Central Military Commission vice chairman Gen. Zhang Youxia – the first meeting between a US official and Chinese military figure in that role since 2018.
The meetings follow efforts over the past year from both sides to repair fractured lines of communication, even as US-China relations remain fraught over a host of frictions including Beijing’s aggressions in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan, and US trade controls targeting China.
Beijing has also been carefully watching the upcoming US elections, where a change of administration in January could impact the trajectory of the relationship between the world’s two largest economies.
Readouts from both sides suggested that some sort of call or talks between Biden and Xi in the coming weeks could be on the cards even as the US president knows he will no longer be in the White House next year whoever wins the election.
In Sullivan’s meetings with Wang, the two sides “welcomed ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication, including planning for a leader-level call in the coming weeks,” a White House readout following meetings Tuesday and Wednesday said.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry readout said they discussed a “new round of interaction between the two heads of state.”
Expectations for significant progress on sticking points in the relationship during this meeting were low, especially as the US elections loom.
“For both sides, they have no strong motivation to push aggressively … because of the election, both are in a ‘wait and see’ mode” while looking to maintain current relations without incident, said Liu Dongshu, an assistant professor at the City University of Hong Kong.
Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to maintain a level of continuity with Biden’s China policy, while Republican candidate Donald Trump had a combative and mercurial relationship with China as president and has threatened to broadly expand American tariffs on Chinese imports if re-elected.
Military talks
Wang and Sullivan also discussed plans to hold a call between their respective military theater commanders, both sides said.
Such talks – part of a broader resumption of regular military discussions following a meeting between Biden and Xi in November – would involve commanders leading American troops in the Indo-Pacific and those leading Chinese strategy in the Southern and Eastern theater.
Wang and Sullivan’s discussion of military communication comes amid especially heightened tensions in the South China Sea, where Chinese and Philippine ships have been engaged in a series of violent, but non-lethal confrontations in recent months.
Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Samuel Paparo earlier this week suggested the US could escort Philippine ships through the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite a major international ruling to the contrary.
In his meeting Thursday with Zhang, a senior figure in China’s powerful Central Military Commission, Sullivan stressed “US commitment to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea” and “the importance of cross-Strait peace and stability,” in reference to Taiwan, according to a White House readout.
Sullivan also raised cyberspace, efforts to reach a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, and American concerns about what the US says is China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base as it wages war on Ukraine.
In introductory remarks ahead of the meeting, which took place at Chinese military headquarters in Beijing, Sullivan acknowledged how “rare” it was to have such exchanges.
“Given the state of the world and the need for us to responsibly manage US-China relations, I think it’s a very important meeting,” he told Zhang.
Zhang called on the United States to “correct its strategic understanding of China, return to a rational and pragmatic policy toward China, (and) earnestly respect China’s core interests,” citing Taiwan as the “core of China’s core interests,” according to a readout published in Chinese state media.
The general also called for both sides to “maintain stability in the military and security field.”
Fraught ties
Prior to those talks, Sullivan held two-days of engagements with Wang, marking the fifth time that the two officials have met over the past year and a half in multiple locations, including their last meeting in January in Bangkok.
The two agreed to advance areas of cooperation, such as counternarcotics and AI safety and risk – but, as expected, made little leeway on major frictions in the relationship.
Wang stressed the importance of US-China coexistence, while calling on the US to stop arming Taiwan and support China’s “reunification” with the island – a self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing.
The top Chinese diplomat also called on the US to “stop suppressing China in the fields of economy, trade, and science and technology,” calling American concerns about China’s manufacturing overcapacity “an excuse for protectionism.”
Sullivan said the US would “continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced US technologies from being used to undermine our national security” and expressed concern about China’s “unfair trade policies.”
The Biden administration earlier this year announced it would maintain a set of sweeping import tariffs in place on Chinese goods — with significant increases on categories like semiconductors and electric vehicles expected to be implemented soon. It has also instated controls on Chinese access to American high-tech that could have dual-use civilian and military purposes.
China has responded by limiting the export of certain materials key to produce high-tech goods.
The US has also included Chinese entities in tranches of sanctions targeting Russia’s war machine, including a set released Friday. US officials have repeatedly warned that China’s exports of dual-use goods to Russia were supporting its defense industry and enabling Moscow’s war in Ukraine – a charge Beijing denies.
Sullivan’s visit comes ahead of a series of high-profile multilateral summits in the coming months that could provide a platform for Biden and Xi to meet again in what would be the twilight of Biden’s presidency.