BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China are working to ensure that competition between them does not degenerate into conflict, a senior White House official said Tuesday as the two sides began talks. on a relationship that was put to a tough test during the term of President Joe Biden.
Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, is meeting for two days with Wang Yi, a senior foreign policy official for Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a scenic lake area on the northern outskirts of Beijing.
“President Biden has been very clear in his discussions with President Xi that he is committed to responsibly managing this important relationship,” Sullivan told Wang before the talks began.
The aim of his visit, which will last until Thursday, is limited: he wants to try to maintain communication in a relationship that was shattered for almost a year in 2022/23 and could only be restored over several months.
No major announcements are expected, but Sullivan’s meetings could lay the groundwork for a possible final summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping before Biden steps down in January.
Wang, the Director of the Communist Party Central Office for Foreign Affairsnoted that there have been many ups and downs in China-US relations in recent years.
“The key,” he said, “is to adhere to the general direction of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation.”
According to Da Wei, a U.S. and international relations expert at Tsinghua University in Beijing, it is important for both countries to avoid any crisis in the remaining months of the Biden administration, as it could set the tone for U.S.-China relations under the next administration.
“The aim of this visit is not to make new breakthroughs or progress, but to continue the stable momentum of China-US relations over the past year through strategic communication and to avoid new crises in the coming months,” he said.
The Biden administration is pursuing a hard line against China: it views the country as a strategic competitor, restricts Chinese companies’ access to high technology, and counters the rising power in its efforts to exert influence over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
The already frosty relations fell into a deep crisis after the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, a high-ranking US politician, visited Taiwan in August 2022Hopes for a restoration of relations were dashed the following February when A suspected Chinese spy balloon hovered over the USA before it was shot down by the US military.
Sullivan was Biden’s point man for often unannounced talks with Wang, who is foreign minister and top foreign policy official of the ruling Communist Party.
Wang had initially resigned from his post as foreign minister when he took over the party post, a higher position, but he returned about seven months later, in July 2023, after his successor was deposed for undisclosed reasons.
At a Meeting between Sullivan and Wang in Vienna in May 2023the two countries have begun a delicate process to get their relations back on track. Since then they have met two more times in a third country, Malta and Thailand, and this week their first talks will take place in Beijing.
China’s Foreign Ministry said this week that relations with the United States remained “at a critical juncture.” It noted that both sides discussed climate and other issues, but accused the United States of continuing to restrict and suppress China.
Canada announced on Monday that It will be equivalent to 100% American import tariffs for electric vehicles made in China, after Sullivan encouraged him to do so the previous day during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet ministers.
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Associated Press video producer Caroline Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.
