Biden to Send National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to China Amid Diplomatic Push

Biden's National Security Adviser Will Visit China Next Week

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser at the White House, will travel to China next week to meet with Wang Yi, the country's foreign minister, in their latest high-level meeting aimed at defusing tensions. "These meetings are consistent with efforts to maintain this strategic channel of communication to responsibly manage the relationship," said Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council. Mr. Sullivan's visit will be his fifth face-to-face meeting with Mr. Wang but his only trip to Beijing since the start of the Biden administration. It will also be the first by a U.S. national security adviser since Susan Rice traveled to China on behalf of President Barack Obama in 2016. A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment on diplomatic discussions, said Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang would discuss potential issues of cooperation, such as efforts to limit the spread of fentanyl, as well as areas where the two countries are locked in disputes, including the future of Taiwan. A final meeting between President Biden and China's leader, Xi Jinping, before the end of Mr. Biden's term is likely to come up. The two last spoke this spring, after a meeting in California in November. Meetings last year between Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang helped restart diplomatic relations between the two countries after a rocky period that included Mr. Biden's order to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the United States in early 2023. But despite a series of high-level conversations since then that have somewhat eased tensions, the United States and China remain in what the Biden administration calls a competitive posture. The administration has also expressed frustration with China's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its lack of condemnation of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which killed more than 1,200 people, including Americans. The administration official said on Friday that Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang would also discuss military-to-military communications between the two countries, which were suspended for months after the balloon episode. And the official said the two men would talk about ways to cooperate on ensuring safety and minimizing the risks of artificial intelligence in the future. The meeting -- and a potential final summit involving Mr. Biden -- comes just months before a U.S. election in which voters will choose a new president and potentially shift policy toward China, especially if former President Donald J. Trump returns to the White House for a second term. The official who spoke to reporters on Friday said Mr. Sullivan would not try to speak for a future administration or its policies toward China.

Sullivan expected to lay groundwork for Biden-Xi meeting during China trip

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will travel next week to China, where he will discuss key global issues and look to set up another meeting between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Sullivan will be in Beijing from Tuesday through Thursday of next week, and he will be the first national security adviser to travel to China since 2016, according to a senior Biden administration official. The official said Sullivan will address key topics, including tensions in the South China Sea, the war in the Middle East and China providing nonlethal technology to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine. While the U.S.-China relationship is "intensely competitive," the meeting will seek to responsibly manage those challenges, the official added. "We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances and taking the common sense steps on tech and national security that we need to take," the official said. "We are committed to managing this competition responsibly [and prevent it] from veering into conflict." Sullivan will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, director of the Communist Party foreign affairs commission office, during the trip. In previous summits, Sullivan and Wang have laid the groundwork for Biden-Xi meetings. In this upcoming trip, Sullivan will seek to get a meeting between the two leaders later this year, according to Axios. Biden last met Xi in November 2023 in California, a high-stakes meeting that led to the leaders agreeing to warm relations. Following that meeting, the U.S. and China reopened military-to-military communication channels and Xi pledged to crack down harder on Chinese material used to make Fentanyl, a drug that has ravaged Americans. Both of those topics are expected to be on the agenda for Sullivan's trip, along with the safe development of AI technology. "The purpose of this strategic level of communication is really to get into details on ... intensive policy, how we see different situations," the senior official said. "It really is about clearing up misperceptions and avoiding this competition from gearing into conflict, more than anything else." Another meeting with Xi could help advance more of those goals and would also cement Biden's foreign policy efforts as he wraps up his final months in office following his decision to not seek reelection and back Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrats' presidential nominee. Still, China and the U.S. remain at odds over major issues, including Beijing's desire to reunify with the self-governing island nation of Taiwan, by force if necessary, and Chinese claims over the South China Sea that have led to clashes with the Philippines. Looming over the trip is a collision this week between Chinese and Filipino boats. The incident comes after Beijing and Manila reached an agreement to allow the Philippines to resupply the crew of a beached ship on a disputed reef in the South China Sea. The dispute over Taiwan, however, remains one of the most tense subjects. Xi has told his forces to be ready by 2027, though it is not strictly viewed as a deadline for invading. The U.S. has unofficial relations with Taipei but remains committed to supporting the island nation, and the senior administration official described the issue as a "constant process" of dialogue. "It requires constant conversations on both sides," the official said. "Our view is still that direct and meaningful dialogue between Taipei and Beijing is the only way to address these issues head on."

National security adviser's China trip could lead to Biden-Xi meeting

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with senior officials in China during a trip there next week, laying the groundwork for a meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Sullivan will be in China from Aug. 27-29 and discuss "bilateral, regional and global issues" the White House confirmed Friday. The trip would make Sullivan the first U.S. National Security Adviser to visit China on official business since 2016, Politico reported, citing sources inside the White House. "These meetings are consistent with efforts to maintain this strategic channel of communication to responsibly manage the relationship and are a product of the November 2023 Woodside Summit between President Biden and President Xi," the White House said in a statement. A proposed meeting between Biden and Xi would reportedly take place later this year, following the U.S. election on Nov. 5. Sullivan is scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the trip. The two are expected to talk about several key topics, including continued military tensions in the South China Sea, the present situation in Gaza, and China's sales of non-lethal technology to Russia for its war in Ukraine, according to the Politico source. "The purpose of this strategic level of communication is really to get into details on...intensive policy, how we see different situations. It really is about clearing up misperceptions and avoiding this competition from gearing into conflict, more than anything else," a senior unnamed White House official told Politico in an interview. Biden and Xi last met in person in November of 2023. Following the meeting, China pledged to crack down on the flow of Fentanyl into the United States. Use of the powerful opiate has soared in recent years. In April, the two leaders discussed AI, counternarcotics as well as Russian access to Chinese technology. Sullivan has previously met with Wang prior to Biden-Xi meetings. Both Biden and Xi are expected to attend the 2024 G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference takes place after the U.S. election.

U.S. national security chief Sullivan to visit China next week

Sullivan's trip comes ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election that pits Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, the current vice president, against former President Donald Trump, in which U.S. competition with China is a key foreign policy issue. Both sides have sought to stabilize rocky ties in the past year since they sank to a historic low point after the U.S. downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. Axios reported earlier that Sullivan and Yi are expected to lay the groundwork for a potential meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this year, to follow up on their California summit last November. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether such a meeting was being contemplated. Sullivan has held regular talks with Wang, aiming as the administration says, to responsibly manage competition between the superpowers. The official noted that the two last met in January in Bangkok, where they discussed ways to advance outcomes from the California summit, including resumption of military-to-military talks, counter-narcotics cooperation, and the risks posed by AI. The official said the visit should not be associated too closely with the election. "That's not the point. We've tried to do these Wang Yi-Jake Sullivan touch points about once a quarter." "(The election) is always in the background in any engagement we have with foreign officials concerned about what comes next or what the transition will be like, but this meeting will be focused on the topics and the issues that we are dealing with. "There's a lot we can get done before the end of the year in terms of just managing the relationship. I think that will be the focus." The official said Sullivan would push for a resumption of theater-level military-to-military talks with China, and was also likely to raise U.S. concerns about China's "increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan." He would be looking too to hear China's assessment of the situation in the Middle East, where the two sides have different approaches but some shared concerns about instability. "It really is about clearing up misperceptions and avoiding this competition from veering into conflict more than anything else," the official said. The official said there were areas where the sides could cooperate, such as the crisis of fentanyl flooding into the U.S. "The fight against illicit precursor chemicals and fentanyl is ... a constantly evolving trade, and so there are always things we need to push forward." Critics in Washington argue the Biden administration has not put enough pressure on Beijing over fentanyl-related substances, which are the leading cause U.S. drug of overdoses. China says it is cracking down on fentanyl and precursor chemicals and that the U.S. crisis is a problem of demand, not supply. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Wang Yi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in April. That visit brought little progress on contentious issues, although there was some effort to ease the mood by emphasizing educational and other cultural exchanges. Blinken reiterated Washington's concerns over Beijing's actions toward Taiwan and its support for Russia's war in Ukraine when he met Wang Yi in Laos in July. (Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Christina Fincher and David Holmes)

Biden to send adviser to China amid foreign policy focus in final months | BreakingNews.ie

US President Joe Biden will dispatch his national security adviser Jake Sullivan to China next week as the White House aims to manage the complicated US-China relationship in the Democrat's final months in office, according to the White House. Mr Sullivan's three-day visit with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that is set to begin on Tuesday is expected to raise US concerns about China's support for Russia's military industrial complex as Moscow's war in Ukraine grinds on, Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea, provocative action by North Korea, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and Beijing's tensions with Taiwan. The Chinese are likely to raise concerns about American tariffs as Beijing continues to repair its economy in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Biden in May slapped major new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminium and medical equipment. Mr Sullivan and Mr Wang are also expected to discuss cooperation between the two countries on stemming the flow of pre-cursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, maintaining communication between the two countries, and artificial intelligence. "These meetings are consistent with efforts to maintain this strategic channel of communication to responsibly manage the relationship and are a product of the November 2023 Woodside Summit between President Biden and President Xi (Jinping)," said White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett, referring to the leaders face-to-face talks on the side-lines of last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. This will be Mr Sullivan's ninth meeting with Mr Wang and his predecessors over the course of the administration to discuss the two economic rivals complicated relationship, but his first visit to China as national security adviser. The last US national security adviser to visit China was Susan Rice in 2016. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the two sides discussed a visit by Mr Sullivan at last year's Biden-Xi summit and it comes after months of planning by the two sides. The announcement was made as Mr Biden is vacationing in California's Santa Ynez Valley, where he has spent some time meeting with aides charting out policy priorities for the final months of his presidency. The summit is not expected to lead to any major announcements by the two countries, according to a senior administration official. The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said the focus of the meeting is to maintain communications on the host of difficult issues and demonstrate "that even amidst competition that we can find constructive ways to work with each other". The high-level visit by Mr Sullivan to China could potentially set the ground for another face-to-face meeting for Mr Biden with Mr Xi. The two leaders last November spent four hours together at a bucolic Northern California estate -- in meetings, a working lunch and a garden stroll -- as they looked to steady a relationship that has been fraught for much of Mr Biden's time in office. Their meeting led to modest agreements to combat illegal fentanyl and re-establish military communications. But there were still deep differences on economic competition and global security threats. The Sullivan visit comes as both candidates looking to succeed Mr Biden, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump, are vowing to carry out tough China policies.