US national security adviser Sullivan visits Beijing in bid to manage strained relations

A top White House official arrived in China on Tuesday for talks on a relationship that has been severely tested during President Joe Biden's term in office.

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, was greeted at a Beijing airport by Yang Tao, the Chinese foreign ministry's chief for the North American and Oceanian department, and the U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns.

Sullivan has been Biden's point person for often unannounced talks with the Communist Party's top foreign policy official to try to manage the growing differences between Washington and Beijing.

The goal of his visit, which lasts through Thursday, is limited — to try to maintain communication in a relationship that broke down for the better part of a year in 2022-23 and was only nursed back over several months.

No major announcements are expected, though Sullivan's meetings could lay the groundwork for a possible final summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping before Biden steps down in January.

It's important for the United States and China to avoid any crisis in the remaining months of the Biden administration, as it could set the tone for U.S.-China ties under the next one, said Da Wei, the director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

"The goal of this visit is not reaching new breakthroughs or progress but to continue the stable momentum of China-U.S. relations in the past year through strategic communication, and to avoid new crises in the next few months," he said.

Sullivan will hold talks with Wang Yi, the director of the Communist Party's Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office.

Wang is also the foreign minister. He had initially stepped down when he took the party post, a more senior position, but he returned about seven months later, in July 2023, after his successor was removed for reasons that have not been made public.

The Biden administration has taken a tough line on China, viewing it as a strategic competitor, restricting the access of its companies to advanced technology and confronting the rising power as it seeks to exert influence over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Already frosty relations went into a deep freeze after then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a senior U.S. lawmaker, visited Taiwan in August 2022. Hopes of restoring ties were dashed the following February when a suspected Chinese spy balloon drifted across the U.S. before being shot down by the U.S. military.

At a meeting between Sullivan and Wang in Vienna in May 2023, the two countries launched a delicate process of putting relations back on track. Since than, they have met two more times in a third country, Malta and Thailand. This week will mark their first talks in Beijing.

China's Foreign Ministry said this week that relations with the U.S. remain at "a critical juncture." It noted that the two sides are talking on climate and other issues, but it accused the U.S. of continuing to constrain and suppress China.

Canada announced on Monday that it will match America's 100% import tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, after being encouraged to do so by Sullivan during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Cabinet ministers the previous day.