US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for in-depth consultations with China's top diplomats. Communist Party state media suggested the talks would focus on pressuring Sullivan to “properly understand” and advance the interests of his host country.
China's state news agency Xinhua Confirmed As of press time on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sullivan had arrived in Beijing and immediately began talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
As of Tuesday morning Eastern time, the two men reportedly held a “new U.S.-China strategic consultation,” the first of several planned for the trip. Details of the discussions had not been released at press time.
Welcome to Beijing, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan pic.twitter.com/hN33dqWvkE
— Ambassador Nicholas Burns (@USAmbChina) August 27, 2024
Sullivan has previously sat in on high-level talks with China as an aide to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on several occasions, but this visit marks his first visit to China since taking office. Sullivan also attended the disastrous 2021 summit in Anchorage, Alaska, where Wang Yi and Communist Party Politburo member Yang Jiechi lectured US officials on Black Lives Matter and racism, but did not receive a similar condemnation of the ongoing genocide of Muslim-majority Uighurs in occupied East Turkestan. The summit was so embarrassing for US President Joe Biden's administration that Chinese e-commerce stores have begun celebrating by selling memorabilia such as phone cases and tote bags printed with the summit's remarks.
Sullivan has also been negotiating directly with Wang in recent days. According to the White House, Sullivan and Wang have met informally five times, including four times in the past year and a half alone. None of the meetings have resulted in any significant change in U.S.-China relations or a mitigation of China's malign behavior, from human rights abuses to intellectual property theft to colonization of the South China Sea.
Sullivan is in China from Tuesday to Thursday and is expected to spend hours discussing policy with Wang, who returns to the foreign minister position in 2023 after the departure of his predecessor and successor, Qin Gang. Featured Yang Jiechi's status as a member of the Politburo after his retirement.
An unnamed Biden “senior official” told reporters on August 23: Suggested Wang and Sullivan were able to continue their conversation for 12 hours.
“Every time the two men have met, they have usually spent about 10 to 12 hours over two days discussing bilateral issues, global regional issues and cross-strait issues,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The same format is expected to be followed in Beijing next week.”
The official said the topics on the agenda for the talks included “China's support for Russia's defense industrial base; [and] The official said the two sides would also discuss the “South China Sea” issue, relations with North Korea and China's increasingly influential and malign role in Israel's war with the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. The official said they would also discuss China's role in the international fentanyl trade and artificial intelligence. The official made no mention of China's atrocious human rights record, particularly the genocide of the Uighurs, stressing that the visit was “aimed at clearing up misunderstandings and avoiding this competition turning into conflict.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (left) pose for a photograph before their meeting at Yanqi Lake in Beijing on August 27, 2024. (NG HAN GUAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“Our China policy is not to fundamentally change China,” the official stressed.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Briefing During the meeting on Sunday, Wang indicated he would be more open to conversations with Sullivan.
“The Chinese side is committed to expressing serious concerns, clarifying its position and making tough demands on issues related to the Taiwan issue, the right to development and China's strategic security,” a senior Foreign Ministry official in charge of North America declared. “The United States has continued to contain and suppress China. China has taken resolute countermeasures. U.S.-China relations remain at a critical juncture for stability.”
The official described China's false claims about the statehood of Taiwan as a “red line that must not be crossed.” The United States has not formally recognized Taiwan's statehood since the administration of former President Jimmy Carter, but any contact between Washington and Taiwan's democratic government has infuriated Beijing.
“The United States' continued arbitrary measures against China in the areas of tariffs, export controls, investment reviews and unilateral sanctions have seriously undermined China's legitimate rights and interests,” a Foreign Ministry official said. “China urges the United States to stop turning economic and trade issues into political and security issues.”
China's state-run Global Times, It often plays a lesser role as an advocate for the diplomatic system than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Claimed In reporting on Sullivan's arrival, the paper said the party's aim in having its national security adviser was to dispel “the confusion and confusion caused by erroneous positions and understanding of China.”
“The United States needs to fundamentally change its perception of China and its strategic stance toward China,” the media outlet argued, adding, “Sullivan said that if the United States wants to get good results in strategic communications with China, it first needs to 'know how to listen.'”
The paper concluded, “One of the standards for evaluating the success of Sullivan's first visit to China will be whether he sincerely listened to and understood what Beijing was saying and made an appropriate contribution to establishing a correct understanding between the United States and China.”
