China's Xi meets senior US aide Sullivan in Beijing in bid to improve ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday in Beijing, on a visit with the stated aim of keeping communications open between the two powers, as the relationship between China and the United States has become increasingly tense in recent years.

Sullivan, on his first trip to China in his capacity as the main adviser to President Joe Biden on U.S. national security issues, has met with senior Chinese officials including Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a senior general of the Central Military Commission.

China and the U.S. have become increasingly at odds over various issues, starting with a trade war dating back to 2018, and which now encompasses global security matters, such as China's claims over the South China Sea, and industrial policy on things like automobile and solar panel manufacturing. Sullivan's trip this week is meant to keep the tensions from growing further.

"We believe that competition with China does not have to lead to conflict or confrontation. The key is responsible management through diplomacy," he told reporters as he made ready to depart Beijing on Thursday evening.

Both sides said Thursday that they remain committed to managing the relationship. Xi and Biden met in San Francisco last November in an effort to improve ties.

"Although the situations of the two countries and China-U.S. relations have changed greatly, China's goal of being committed to the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations has not changed," Xi said.

"President Biden is committed to responsibly managing this consequential relationship to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict or confrontation, and to work together where our interests align," Sullivan said.

Beijing and Washington will also plan for a phone call in the coming weeks between Xi and Biden, the White House said Wednesday. The White House statement said that both sides would keep lines of communication open. Xi said that he is willing to continue communications with Biden, according to CCTV.

Sullivan said the two leaders might meet in person before Biden leaves the Oval Office, possibly at the next Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.

Xi and Sullivan's meeting also touched on the issues of American citizens detained in China; Taiwan; and the clashes between the Chinese and Filipino coast guards in the South China Sea.

The two also discussed China's support for Russia, as a recent U.S. assessment found that the country was exporting technology that Russia uses to manufacture missiles, tanks and other weaponry. They also discussed efforts to end the Ukraine war, but Sullivan said they did not make any progress on that issue.

Sullivan said that the two sides planned to hold a military theater commander phone call in the near future.

China has rapidly expanded its military, and there are concerns that Taiwan and the South China Sea are becoming flashpoints, underscoring the importance of military-to-military communications that were previously broken off, but were reinstated after the Xi-Biden summit last November.

A decades old-issue, Taiwan in recent years has re-emerged as a critical issue as the island's ties with China became increasingly strained over Chinese claims that Taiwan is part of China.

Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy that split from authoritarian communist China in 1949, has rejected Beijing's demands that it accept unification with the mainland by peace or by force. The U.S. is obligated under a domestic law to provide the island with sufficient hardware and technology to deter invasion.

Sullivan also met China's vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, on Thursday morning, in a rare meeting to discuss communication between the world's two biggest militaries.

Zhang raised the issue of Taiwan, saying it was a critical issue."China demands that the United States stop military collusion between the U.S. and Taiwan, stop arming Taiwan and stop spreading false narratives about Taiwan," according to a Chinese Defense Ministry statement of the meeting.

Zhang has spoken in the past of Beijing's determination to take control of Taiwan. At an international naval gathering earlier this year in northeast China, Zhang said China would strike back with force if its interests came under threat.

He said that China's territorial sovereignty "brooks no infringement and its core interests cannot be challenged. We do not provoke trouble, but we will never flinch in face of provocation. The Chinese military will resolutely defend the reunification and interest of the motherland."

The White House statement said Sullivan "underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

Beijing also warned Washington "not to support or indulge the Philippines to infringe" upon China's rights and interests in the South China Sea. China and the Philippines have clashed over the Second Thomas Shoal, and lately the Sabina Shoal.

The U.S. military has pushed back against China's claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, saying this week that it would be open to consultations about escorting Philippine ships in the disputed sea amid a spike in hostilities between Beijing and Manila on the issue.

Sullivan said Thursday that they have made clear the U.S.' "longstanding commitment" to the Philippines, as well as concerns about the Chinese Coast Guard ramming Filipino vessels in recent days.

The Philippines has called for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to do more. The 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc includes the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, which have South China Sea claims that overlap with each other as well as China's and Taiwan's.

The U.S. has shifted its policy with China from engagement to competition. The Biden administration has made it a priority to prevent the competition from spiraling out of control, while seeking to collaborate with China in areas such as climate change, artificial intelligence and enforcement against illicit drugs.

John Podesta, the senior adviser to the president for international climate policy, will travel to China, and Sullivan and Wang discussed "next steps to reduce the flow of illicit synthetic drugs" and "continue repatriation of undocumented migrants," the White House said.

In July, the U.S. Border Patrol made 1,851 arrests of Chinese immigrants on the border with Mexico, down from the December high of 5,951.

The two sides also agreed to hold a second round of dialogue over artificial intelligence, the Chinese foreign ministry said.