Jake Sullivan’s trip comes amid China’s hostile behavior against the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan.
The U.S.’s top security aide arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a three-day visit during which the world’s two largest economies seek to engage diplomatically amid China’s recent aggression—and U.S. condemnation thereof—in the South China Sea.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters ahead of a closed-door meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that they would discuss areas of agreement and disagreement that “need to be managed effectively and substantively.” Wang described China-U.S. ties as “critical,” with a bearing on the world, and which have taken “twists and turns.”
Sullivan and Wang are expected to focus on several key issues in the bilateral relationship, including advancing counternarcotics cooperation, military-to-military communication, and AI safety and risk discussion, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.
“He will also take the opportunity to talk to Mr. Wang about our concerns, from a security perspective, all throughout the Indo-Pacific—tensions rising in the South China Sea, tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and a range of other issues including unfair economic practices,” Kirby added. “All of that will be on the table.”
The communication channel between Sullivan and Wang “has played an important role in responsibly managing the competition and the tension between our two countries,” Kirby said of the Biden administration’s approach to China.
Sullivan’s visit comes amid escalating aggression by China toward its neighbors in the region, particularly the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan. Recent “dangerous actions” by China in the South China Sea prompted the State Department to issue a statement in August condemning China’s actions and reaffirming U.S. commitment to its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines.
During a briefing about Sullivan’s trip on Aug. 23, a senior administration official said that Sullivan and Wang will also exchange views on North Korea, the Middle East, Burma, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and U.S. concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base.
The U.S. Treasury and State departments sanctioned nearly 400 individuals and entities supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine on Aug. 23, including several Russian and Chinese companies. In response, China’s commerce ministry denounced the U.S. sanctions, hinting that it won’t stop aiding Moscow’s war effort.
US Elections
The November U.S. elections will loom in the backdrop as Sullivan sits down with Wang. The CCP might withhold inking any new commitments with the Biden administration, should it feel the next U.S. administration will implement more favorable policies toward China.
Former President Donald Trump said earlier this year that he was considering a plan to impose over 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods in his potential second term. Vice President Kamala Harris, in a speech accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency last week, said that “America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.”
The senior administration official said people shouldn’t “tie this trip or associate it too closely with the election.”
They added that the U.S. side won’t speak for the next administration’s China policy, be it a Harris or Trump administration, and said that Sullivan will speak about “how we intend to manage the balance of this administration, how we intend to manage the transition.”
Chen Ping-kui, a professor in the Department of Diplomacy at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, also dismissed that the meeting between Sullivan and Wang would have any direct connection to the November elections, in an interview with The Epoch Times on Tuesday before Sullivan’s arrival.
“At most, the Biden administration can only guarantee what the situation will be like if the Democratic Party continues to be in power, and whether there will be any changes in policies,” Chen said.
Chen added that he didn’t anticipate “any actual results” coming out of the meeting. Nonetheless, Chen said that the meeting will surely help to stabilize Sino-U.S. ties, at least so that the two sides can avoid misunderstandings going forward.
If Harris wins, it is unclear if she will continue with the Biden administration’s approach to engagement with Beijing.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and President Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry, have all visited China since Biden took office.
Sullivan’s China trip marks the first China visit by a U.S. national security advisor since 2016, when Susan Rice of the Obama administration made the trip and met with several Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
China’s Aggression
The timing of Sullivan’s trip comes as China is increasingly aggressive towards its neighbors.
Japan’s defense ministry on Monday reported that a Chinese military plane had violated the country’s airspace for the first time over waters in southwestern Japan. In response to the intrusion, the ministry said Japanese fighter jets were scrambled to warn off the Chinese plane.
China has also stepped up its coercion against Taiwan following the January election of Lai Ching-te who was sworn in as Taiwan’s president in May. On the morning of Aug. 24, Taiwan’s defense ministry reported that it had spotted 50 military planes and vessels in the vicinity of Taiwan in the past 24 hours.
China’s incursion coincided with Lai’s trip to Taiwan’s offshore islands of Kinmen on Friday. During a speech, he said “Taiwan is a peace-loving country” and the people of Taiwan are “unwilling to be ruled by the [Chinese] Communist Party.”
The Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute recently published a report warning that China could seize the Kinmen Islands in the coming months, since Xi may believe the United States won’t respond rapidly and forcefully given its own general election and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
In the South China Sea, there have been several sea and air confrontations between China and the Philippines in recent weeks. On Aug. 25, Manila said one of its fisheries vessels prematurely ended its resupply mission to a shoal in its exclusive economic zone because its engine failed after being rammed by the Chinese Coast Guards ships.
Despite significant international condemnation, China continues to push ownership claims within other nation’s internationally-recognized waters in the South China Sea.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected Beijing’s “nine-dash line” claim to about 85 percent of the South China Sea’s 2.2 million square miles. The ruling stated that Beijing’s territorial claims were inconsistent with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
On Tuesday, another Philippine resupply mission in the South China Sea was cut short. According to the Philippine Coast Guard, two vessels—carrying food and supplies to personnel aboard the agency’s flagship BRP Teresa Magbanua on an extended patrol around Escoda Shoal—were illegally blocked by 40 Chinese vessels, which included six Chinese Coast Guard ships.
During the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s military forum in Manila on Tuesday, Philippines Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro named China as the “biggest disruptor” of peace in Southeast Asia.
Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” warned that the Philippines is the “next Ukraine,” according to his article published on Aug. 26.
Chang explained that Xi “needs a quick political victory” because he “is vulnerable” domestically due to his policies. Given that seizing Taiwan “is out of reach” at the moment, Xi “has decided to move on a weak neighbor. The Republic of the Philippines fits the bill,“ Chang said.
“The risk is that an attack on the Philippines will lead to general conflict in the region.”
Luo Ya and Reuters contributed to the report.