Beijing, China—US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrived in Beijing Tuesday to meet top diplomat Wang Yi for tense talks, as China found itself embroiled in fresh security rows with key American allies Japan and the Philippines.
On Monday, US treaty ally Japan scrambled fighters after a Chinese military aircraft’s incursion into its airspace, which Tokyo called a “serious violation” of its sovereignty.
And the Philippine defense chief on Tuesday accused Beijing of being the “biggest disruptor” of peace in Southeast Asia following a week of confrontations between the two countries’ ships near a flashpoint disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
Sullivan’s plane landed at Beijing’s Capital Airport just before 2:00 pm local time (0600 GMT), with the official greeted on the tarmac by US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Chinese foreign ministry official Yang Tao. He then headed to a hotel on the outskirts of Beijing.
Ahead of his trip—the first by a US national security advisor to China since 2016—an American official said he would discuss the South China Sea with counterparts in Beijing, including foreign minister Wang.
She did not indicate whether the United States expected any breakthroughs on the trip.
“We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances, and taking the common steps on tech and national security that we need to take,” the official said, referring to sweeping restrictions on US technology transfers to China imposed under President Joe Biden.
“We are committed to managing this competition responsibly… and preventing it from veering into conflict,” she added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
She said the US would press China on its mounting “military, diplomatic and economic pressure” on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy that Beijing considers part of its territory and has not ruled out reunifying through force.
China has kept up its sabre-rattling since the inauguration this year of President Lai Ching-te, whose party emphasizes Taiwan’s separate identity.
“These activities are destabilizing, risk escalation, and we’re going to continue to urge Beijing to engage in meaningful dialogue with Taipei,” the American official said.
Managing tensions
Sullivan will also reiterate US concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industry expansion since its invasion of Ukraine.
Beijing counters that, unlike the United States, it does not directly give weapons to either side.
China has historically been eager to work with US national security advisors, seeing them as decision-makers close to the president who can negotiate away from the media spotlight that comes with the secretary of state or other top leadership.
The modern US-China relationship was launched when Henry Kissinger, then national security advisor to Richard Nixon, secretly visited Beijing in 1971 to lay the groundwork for normalising relations with the communist state.
Sullivan and Wang have met five times over the last year and a half –in Washington, Vienna, Malta and Bangkok, as well as alongside Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a November summit in California.
The meetings between Wang and Sullivan were sometimes announced only after they concluded, and the two had spent long hours together behind closed doors.
Sullivan’s visit comes months before US elections in November.
