U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Beijing’s most senior uniformed military official, Zhang Youxia on August 29, the last day of Sullivan’s three-day trip to China.
Jake Sullivan, U.S. national security adviser to President Joe Biden, recently paid a three-day visit to Beijing. It was the first China visit by a U.S. national security adviser in eight years and Sullivan’s first in the role. He came at the invitation of Wang Yi, a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China and director of the Central Office of Foreign Affairs.
This channel of communication has special significance, as it was based on a consensus between the two countries’ leaders. Its main function is to serve head-of-state diplomacy and follow up on important points of consensus reached by the two leaders.
Head-of-state diplomacy is of critical importance in preserving stable China-U.S. relations, and Sullivan’s visit aimed to prepare for a new round of interaction. Following a successful meeting in San Francisco in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke by phone in April — a call that played an important role in more or less stabilizing bilateral ties. Despite some improvements in China-U.S. interactions in economy and trade, finance, military relations and climate change response, risks had also accumulated in bilateral ties, including shocks from such third-parties as the Philippines. These require serious attention.
In particular, as the United States braces for its presidential election, Kamala Harris’s late replacement of Biden in the campaign against Donald Trump makes the elections even more complex. Partisan struggles in the U.S. always involve the manipulation of China topics as politicians from both major parties try to present a tough image. It is therefore imperative to effectively plan and execute head-of-state diplomacy, to maintain stability and credibility, to prudently handle issues and to avoid serious shocks to bilateral ties from electoral politics and strategic contingencies.
Sullivan has been active in U.S. diplomatic circles since the Obama years, and is deemed one of a new generation of star Democratic politicians. Biden has high confidence in him, and many of his policy ideas have influenced core U.S. decision-makers. Ryan Hass, director of the Brookings Institution’s John Thornton China Center, called Sullivan’s visit a “Kissinger-style” engagement, recalling Henry Kissinger’s 1971 secret trip to China to break the ice in relations. Sullivan’s visit was intended to prevent loss of control. Sullivan once co-authored an article with current Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell arguing that America’s China strategy should pursue co-existence with China under conditions conducive to U.S. interests and values, rather than counting on an outcome similar to the Cold War.
The Chinese side placed considerable weight on Sullivan’s visit. President Xi met with him on Aug. 29, and Wang Yi hosted six rounds of strategic talks with him, on Aug. 27 and 28 — a total of 12 hours. This was the fourth round of strategic communication for the pair, whose previous rounds of strategic communication in Vienna, Malta, Bangkok and Washington all achieved positive results. Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia of the CPC Central Military Commission also met with Sullivan on Aug. 29. It was the first meeting between a ranking U.S. official and a vice chairman of the commission.
During his meeting with Sullivan, President Xi emphasized that four things had not changed in China-U.S. relations — China’s dedication to steady, healthy, sustainable development of relations; the principle of handling China-U.S. relations from the perspective of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation; China’s position of resolutely preserving its own sovereignty, security and development interests; and its efforts to sustain traditional friendship between the Chinese and American peopled. It is hoped that the U.S. side would meet China halfway, take a positive and rational attitude toward China and its development, take each other’s development as an opportunity rather than a challenge and work with the Chinese side to achieve stable coexistence between countries with very different civilizations, systems and development paths.
Xi underscored the need to maintain a stable bilateral relationship and try to improve and move forward on that basis. “Move forward” is an expression worth special attention in the Chinese side’s statement, as it suggests a proactive, constructive Chinese approach to future China-U.S. relations. Sullivan said both sides had made a serious effort to implement the points of consensus reached by the two countries’ leaders since their San Francisco meeting, noting that positive achievements had been made. In addition to reiterating the Biden administration’s China policy statements, he stressed that the US side wished to continue strategic communication to find a way to peaceful coexistence and the continuous development of bilateral ties.
“Continuous development” of China-U.S. relations is a fresh expression that has positive connotations beyond peaceful coexistence. This expression, and the Chinese idea what “move forward” means, echo each other and together send a new message to the rest of the world.
Of course, to move forward stability must be guaranteed. The precondition for stabilizing the relationship calls for a clearer sense of bottom lines and red lines, and avoiding driving the other side into a dead-end. Taiwan, democracy, human rights, political system and development path are the four red lines the Chinese side has drawn for China-U.S. relations. The Chinese side has expressed serious concerns, expounded its solemn stance and raised serious requirements. It stated that Taiwan is the first red line for China-U.S. relations and brooks no transgression. China’s political system and development path brook no challenge. The Chinese people must not be deprived of their right to development. And all “guardrails” will be useless if such red lines are crossed.
Chinese leaders have repeatedly stated that Taiwan is at the core of China’s core interests and is the foundation of the foundation of all China-U.S. relations. Zhang Youxia told Sullivan that the Chinese side has always strived to preserve peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but Taiwan independence is incompatible with peace and stability. Resolutely opposing Taiwan independence is the responsibility of the Chinese military, and the Chinese people must act against separatists in Taiwan. Wang Yi told Sullivan the U.S. side should honor its promise not to support Taiwan independence, to stick to the “one China” principle and the three joint communiques between the two governments, to stop arming Taiwan and to support China’s peaceful reunification.
China-U.S. relations moving forward must be supported by dialogue at different levels, as well as by concrete actions. During Sullivan’s visit, the two sides reached agreement on maintaining high-level exchanges and communication at different levels. The two sides will continue collaborating on law enforcement, fighting drugs, the expatriation of illegal immigrants, climate responses, video calls between theater-level military commanders and intergovernment dialogue on artificial intelligence. They also agreed to maintain communication on such international and regional hot spots as the Middle East, Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula.
Sullivan’s visit revealed some new trends in the development of China-U.S. relations. Both sides wish to preserve the stability of bilateral ties against the backdrop of U.S. presidential elections and to move things forward. For such a purpose, “whole-process management” is needed to facilitate benign interactions at various levels between various entities. In addition to new concepts, new breakthroughs are also necessary for the model and methods of bilateral interactions to work. This will create more favorable conditions for moving forward.
