BEIJING: A senior Chinese military official has warned the United States to stop “collusion” with Taiwan while top White House aide Jake Sullivan stressed the significance of stability in the tense Strait in a rare one-on-one meeting Thursday, both sides stated.
Sullivan arrived in China on Tuesday, the first US NSA to visit Beijing since 2016, for three days of dialogs with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other high-ranking officials. The trip came as China became embroiled in security rows with US allies the Philippines and Japan.
China-US Ties
On Thursday, Jake Sullivan met with senior Chinese army chief Zhang Youxia at the Beijing headquarters of the Central Military Commission. “It’s rare that we have the chance to have this type of exchange,” Sullivan told Zhang during the meeting.
“Given the state of the world and the need for us to responsibly manage the US-China ties, I think this is a very significant meeting.” Zhang, in turn, thanked Sullivan for his trip and stated the meeting “reflects the value the American government puts on military security”.
The two top officials also agreed to hold a call between the two sides’ theatre commanders “in the near future”, the White House said.
Sullivan has raised the significance of “stability” in the Taiwan Strait and “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea, where China and the Philippines have clashed in recent months.
He also expressed “concerns about Beijing’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base” echoing longstanding Washington’s claims that China has rejected, according to the White House. He raised “the need to avoid escalation and miscalculation in cyber space, and the current efforts to reach a truce and captives agreement in Gaza”, the White House added.
On Wednesday, Wang and Sullivan discussed plans for their leaders to talk in the next weeks and clashed over Beijing’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions. Sullivan has reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to defending its Indo-Pacific allies, the White House added. Chinese official media reported that Wang also issued his own warning to the United States.
US should stop arming Taiwan
CCTV reported that the US must not use bilateral treaties as an excuse to undermine Beijing’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, nor should it support or overlook the Philippines’ actions of violation. Earlier, Sullivan and Wang previously met five times over the past year and a half in Washington, Malta, Vienna, and Bangkok, as well as alongside President Biden and President Xi in Woodside, California in November 2023.
Wang stressed that Taiwan belonged to China and that Beijing would “certainly be unified”, saying that the US should stop arming Taiwan, CCTV reported. The White House added Sullivan “underscored the significance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
The US and Chinese top officials also discussed issues including the Middle East, Ukraine, and the Korean Peninsula, both sides said.
