Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, visited Beijing last week, marking the first visit in eight years by someone of his rank. Although there were no significant breakthroughs related to major issues between the two global powerhouses, the visit represents a crucial step towards stabilising Sino-American relations. It aims to prevent their growing rivalry from escalating into an outright conflict.
Sullivan had his fifth meeting with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, a prominent figure in the Communist Party leadership during his Beijing visit. Sullivan additionally had meetings with Xi Jinping, China’s President and Zhang Youxia, the vice-chairman of the country’s Central Military Commission, and a high-ranking military adviser to Xi.
The mutual proximity of Sullivan and Wang to their respective presidents seems to have forged a strong bond between them. Their negotiations, therefore, carry a higher degree of significance than other diplomatic engagements might.
Key contentious issues, such as Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Ukrainian war, and the US’s trade restrictions on China, were part of last week’s meetings. The Middle East was also discussed, where China’s cordial ties with Iran, powerful Arabian states, and enduring support for Palestinian statehood present it with a distinctive diplomatic advantage compared to the U.S and its allies.
However, the main objective of these discussions and the ongoing high-level dialogue between Washington and Beijing, in general, is to construct a stronger framework for managing their bilateral relations. The resumption of military contact after Xi’s summit with Joe Biden in San Francisco in November of last year has already started to mitigate the frequency of close calls between their forces along the Chinese shoreline.
Both Xi and Biden are scheduled to participate in the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) in Lima this November. Following the recent talks in Beijing, both the American and Chinese sides conveyed their expectations of a bilateral meeting between the two leaders at these gatherings.
As Biden’s tenure as president draws to a close, he’s still in a position to cultivate a stronger base for the US-China relationship for his successor. Sullivan succeeded in reassuring Beijing that as a key player in the current administration’s international policy, it is highly probable that Kamala Harris will uphold any direction determined by Biden in the upcoming months.
During Trump’s previous term, relations with Beijing significantly worsened and threats of heightening trade tensions through substantial tariff increases on Chinese goods were made. Although Biden can’t restrict the actions of his successor with regards to China, his diplomatic efforts can establish frameworks to minimise potential harm.