Top-level meeting shows China – and Xi – still a priority for Biden

Jake Sullivan has arrived on his first go to to China as US nationwide safety adviser. He’ll maintain talks with International Minister Wang Yi as the 2 international locations attempt to stabilise relations.

Mr Sullivan and Mr Wang have met 4 instances over 16 months in Vienna, Malta, Washington and Bangkok. Their final assembly in January was shortly after a high-stakes summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden that sought to reset frosty ties.

This week’s talks – scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday – sign that China continues to be a precedence for the Biden administration, even because the retiring president enters his closing months in workplace.

Is one other summit on the playing cards?

The White Home is making an attempt to not explicitly hyperlink Mr Sullivan’s journey to the US presidential election. Nevertheless it’s exhausting to disregard the timing.

If Mr Sullivan is ready to lay the groundwork for a closing Biden-Xi summit, his journey would tie up the ends of the US president’s most consequential – and fraught – international coverage relationship.

US and Chinese language diplomats at all times acknowledge that talks between Washington and Beijing are by no means straightforward. And there’s a lot to speak about.

With the surprising flip the US election has taken with Biden bowing out in favour of Kamala Harris, China is watching intently for what the following presidency may need in retailer.

Donald Trump has made it clear he’ll elevate tariffs additional on Chinese language items, doubtlessly deepening the trade war he kicked off in 2019.

Whereas Mr Biden’s administration noticed benefit in diplomacy, he did not reverse Trump-era tariffs and has added extra – in Might he announced steep duties on Chinese language-made electrical vehicles, photo voltaic panels, and metal.

Mr Biden has additionally strengthened alliances throughout Asia to combat China’s rising influence and beefed up Washington’s navy presence – which, in flip, has rattled Beijing.

To this point, the Harris marketing campaign has not given many clues about how she plans to handle the connection with China.

And the White Home has made clear that Mr Sullivan’s go to is supposed to proceed the work of the Biden administration, fairly than set the tone for the following president.

However China is probably going wanting forward anyway.

Beijing will use this chance with Mr Sullivan to make clear its personal priorities. It would hope that every one events in America are listening – China’s ministry of international affairs has described this as a “essential juncture” between the world’s two largest economies.

For China, the pink line is and at all times will likely be Taiwan. It claims the self-governing island and has repeatedly stated it won’t tolerate any indicators that Washington is encouraging Taiwanese independence.

Excessive-profile diplomatic visits, reminiscent of a controversial one by then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2022, or recognition of Taiwan’s elections or its elected leaders, fall into that class.

Chinese language state media has stated Beijing will give attention to expressing grave considerations, stating its place, and making severe calls for on issues such because the “Taiwan query”.

China may also have some sturdy phrases for Mr Sullivan on commerce. Beijing has described US tariffs on Chinese language items as “unreasonable” and has urged Washington to “cease politicising and securitising financial and commerce points” and “take extra measures to facilitate people-to-people exchanges between the 2 international locations”.

When he got here to energy, Mr Biden wished to set ties with China on a fair keel after what he noticed because the chaos and unpredictability of the Trump White Home.

His administration has wished to “responsibly handle” rivalry with Beijing; to exhibit American energy and competitors with China by means of stealth not bravado.

However that technique has been upended amid the turbulence of occasions.

Final yr, disaster engulfed the direct relationship when an American fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over US territory.

The wars in Ukraine and the Center East have additional sharpened the tone.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing in April with a warning – Washington would act if China didn’t cease supplying Russia with microchips and machine components to construct weapons utilized in its battle in Ukraine.

He accused his Chinese language counterparts of “serving to to gas the most important menace” to European safety because the Chilly Warfare.

His warning materialised with a raft of sanctions on Chinese language corporations over their alleged assist of the Russian navy.

It is a difficult topic that China retains making an attempt to bat away, however Washington is insistent, and Mr Sullivan is more likely to carry it up once more.

China’s growing assertiveness in Asia has additionally made the US cautious of the impression of these ties additional afield – notably with Iran, which allies itself with Moscow and in addition arms Israel’s adversaries.

Lastly, in America, there may be the devastating home impression of Chinese language-manufactured “pre-cursor” chemical compounds to make artificial opioids like fentanyl, overdoses of that are killing more Americans than ever and the disaster has laid waste to complete cities.

Final yr’s summit between Mr Biden and Mr Xi in San Fransisco was meant to make progress on these points.

Since then, regardless of the tariffs and the strict rhetoric, Washington and Beijing have acknowledged their variations – and studies of the 2 sides placing a deal on curbing fentanyl manufacturing are an excellent signal.

In April, when the BBC accompanied US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his go to to Shanghai and Beijing, the general public components of a few of his conferences with senior Chinese language officers felt like a steely stand-off.

It was a present of diplomatic power meant for either side’s home viewers. And this may undoubtedly be part of Mr Sullivan’s journey too, as he tries to bolster Mr Biden’s diplomacy within the waning months of his presidency.

However these conferences serve one other elementary goal – face-to-face time between two rival, inter-dependent economies as they battle mutual mistrust and attempt to probe one another’s actual intentions.

Plainly Jake Sullivan’s earlier conferences with Wang Yi have quietly laid the groundwork for what each side name “steady relations”.

In a latest speech on the Council of International Relations in Washington, Mr Sullivan stated that he and Mr Wang had “more and more gotten to the purpose of setting apart the speaking factors and actually having strategic conversations”.

He described the character of these conversations as “direct”, together with one on the battle in Ukraine.

“Each of us left feeling that we didn’t agree or see eye-to-eye on every little thing however that there was a variety of work to hold ahead.”