BEIJING: US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has arrived in Beijing to meet top diplomat Wang Yi for tense talks as China was embroiled in security rows with key American allies the Philippines and Japan.
On Monday, US treaty ally Japan scrambled fighters following a Chinese military aircraft’s incursion into its airspace, which Tokyo called a “serious violation” of its sovereignty. The Philippine defence chief on Tuesday alleged Beijing of being the “biggest disruptor” of peace in Southeast Asia after a week of confrontations between the two nations’ ships near a flashpoint, disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
South China Sea
Jake Sullivan’s plane landed at Beijing just before 2:00 pm local time, the footages showed, with the top official greeted on the runway by US envoy to China Nicholas Burns. Ahead of his visit — the first by a US national security advisor to China since 2016 — an American official stated that he would discuss the South China Sea with counterparts in China, including foreign minister Wang Yi. However, she did not hint whether the US expected breakthroughs on the visit.
“We are dedicated to making the investments, strengthening our alliances, and taking the common measures on tech and national security that we need to take,” the official stated, referring to sweeping restrictions on American technology transfers to Beijing imposed under Biden.
“We are committed to dealing this contest responsibly and stopping it from veering into conflict,” she told AFP on the condition of anonymity. She added that Washington would press Beijing on its mounting ” diplomatic, military, and economic pressure” on Taiwan.
US-China Ties
The US top official will also reiterate Washington’s concerns regarding Beijing’s support for Moscow’s defence industry expansion since its invasion of Ukraine. China counters that, unlike the US, it does not directly give arms to either side.
Beijing has historically been eager to work with US national security advisors, seeing them as decision-makers close to the president of the US who can negotiate away from the media spotlight that comes with the top leadership or secretary of state.
The recent Sino-US relationship was launched when Henry Kissinger, then national security advisor to Richard Nixon, secretly visited China in 1971 to lay the groundwork for normalising ties with the communist country.
Wang and Sullivan have met four times over the last year and a half — once in Washington and the other times in Malta, Vienna, and Bangkok — as well as alongside President Biden and President Xi Jinping at their November summit in California.
The meetings between Sullivan and Wang were sometimes announced only following they concluded and the two had spent long hours together behind closed doors. Sullivan’s trip comes months before US elections in November.
