Senior White House official Jake Sullivan has wrapped up two days of talks with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing, as the two sides seek to manage tensions ahead of the US election.
Sullivan – who is on his first trip to China as national security adviser – also met President Xi Jinping on Thursday, the last day of his visit, and held what he described as a “rare” meeting with Zhang Youxia, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.
It was the fifth time Sullivan and Foreign Minister Wang have held talks since May 2023, and this time the American official was accompanied by a large delegation – nearly all of them Chinese speakers, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
There were three new faces among the US contingent at the talks, which were held at a secluded lakeside resort on the northern outskirts of Beijing.
One of them was Diana Chu Partridge, a former diplomat with the US embassy in China who is now director for China affairs at the National Security Council, according to CCTV. It noted her extensive experience in the country including engaging with Chinese officials and academics on US-China relations.
The other two were Joy Li, director for strategic planning at the NSC, and Nicole Fasano, policy adviser to the national security adviser at the NSC.
Li studied Chinese at Beijing Normal University in 2008 during her undergraduate years at Princeton University, and she interned at the US Trade Representative’s Office of China Affairs in 2015 during her postgraduate studies.
Fasano did a minor in Chinese language and literature at George Washington University as an undergraduate and also took a short course in Mandarin at Donghua University in Shanghai during that time.
Two other key figures at the talks were Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Sarah Beran, senior director for China and Taiwan affairs at the NSC – both of whom have been involved in the past three rounds of strategic talks in Vienna, Malta and Bangkok.
Beran, who speaks fluent Mandarin and is responsible for coordinating China-related affairs, was previously a State Department diplomat posted in Beijing, according to CCTV. She was seated to the left of Sullivan during the talks with Wang.
Kritenbrink has held positions related to East Asia and the Pacific within the US diplomatic system for over 20 years and speaks both Chinese and Japanese, according to CCTV.
US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns was also at the talks, seated next to Sullivan on the right.
Sullivan told reporters on Thursday that many of his team were fluent in Mandarin and had “deep experience” on issues related to China and the US-China relationship.
“It makes my job a lot easier,” he said. “I stand on the shoulders of those experts because they are the ones with the insights and the wisdom that drive forward the conversations we’ve had here in the last three days.”
Li Haidong, director of the Centre for American Studies at the China Foreign Affairs University, told CCTV that the larger US delegation suggested a broad range of topics was on the table and that they expected detailed discussion and coordination with their Chinese counterparts.
Beijing sent senior officials to the meetings including Ma Zhaoxu, the foreign vice-minister, Yang Tao, director general of the foreign ministry’s Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, and foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
