US National Security Adviser Meets With CCP Leader to Steady Bilateral Ties

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during a press conference at the US embassy in Beijing on Aug. 29, 2024. ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping on the third and final day of a rare visit to Beijing, after holding talks with a senior Chinese military official on the same day.

Sullivan is wrapping up his three-day visit to China, which marks the first time a U.S. national security adviser has made such a trip in eight years.

His visit, following similar trips by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier this year, is intended to continue President Joe Biden’s effort to maintain communications between the two sides and manage the bilateral relationship.

Sullivan and Xi ​​welcomed “ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication,” the White House stated in a readout of the Aug. 29 meeting.

The pair discussed issues including Taiwan, the South China Sea, and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The White House said the two also discussed further implementation of their shared commitments, including counternarcotics, military-to-military communications, and AI safety and risk. President Joe Biden and Xi first agreed on these commitments when they met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco in November 2023.

According to China’s state-run media, Xi told Sullivan that China would continue to handle its relationship with the United States based on “win-win cooperation,” while it “firmly safeguards its sovereignty.”

Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at Taiwan’s government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told The Epoch Times that Xi’s willingness to meet with Sullivan could suggest that the CCP leader has a “more favorable view” of the Democratic Party’s chances in the upcoming elections.

Su said that Sino–U.S. relations would remain unchanged in the coming months before the inauguration of a new administration. Su indicated that should the Democratic Party win the November presidential election, Kamala Harris would likely continue the Biden administration’s technology export restrictions against China.

Election Interference

Following the meeting with the CCP leader, Sullivan said he didn’t discuss the upcoming U.S. election with Xi or any other CCP officials.

However, he said he sent a clear message that meddling in the U.S. election is not acceptable.

“Every time I meet with Chinese officials, I raise the issue of election interference and laying down a clear marker that it’s unacceptable for any nation to interfere in the US election, and this trip was no different,” Sullivan told reporters as he concluded three days of talks in Beijing.

As the November vote nears, there are growing concerns that rival nations, particularly the Chinese communist regime, are attempting to influence U.S. elections by spreading disinformation and engaging in other online influence operations.

When Blinken traveled to China in April, he publicly acknowledged the CCP’s efforts to meddle in the elections, saying that Washington had observed “evidence of attempts to influence and arguably interfere” with the upcoming election process.

Biden told Xi not to interfere in the U.S. presidential election during their in-person meeting in Woodside, California, last November. That message was reiterated during the two leaders’ phone call in April.

Biden–Xi Meeting

The White House confirmed on Wednesday that Washington and Beijing are working on arranging the two leaders’ next phone call after Sullivan held a lengthy meeting with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat.

Beijing’s accounts of the two senior officials’ exchanges didn’t mention the phone call. It stated that the two sides discussed a new round of engagement between the two countries’ leaders.

Chinese military and coast guard vessels have been using aggressive tactics against democratic neighbors to assert the regime’s claims to nearly all of the South China Sea and East China Sea, while accusing countries that voice concerns about Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, and Hong Kong of “interfering in its internal affairs.”

“Meeting with Xi Jinping sends a crucial signal that top leaders between the United States and China can communicate with each other,” Chen Ping-kui, an expert in international relations and security at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, told The Epoch Times at the start of the Sullivan–Xi meeting.

“Engagement doesn’t mean that there will be achievement.”

He pointed to some continuous flashpoints in the bilateral relationship, such as the South China Sea and Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy the CCP views as a breakaway province.

“We still need to observe if the United States and China could reach consensus on these issues,” he said.

U.S. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan (2nd-L) speaks next to US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns during a meeting with Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission Zhang Youxia (not pictured) at the Bayi building in Beijing on Aug. 29, 2024. Ng Han Guan/POOL/ AFP via Getty Images

During the press conference, Sullivan said it is likely that both Biden and Xi will be at APEC and the G20 later this year.

“I don’t have any announcements to make on either President Biden’s travel or a potential meeting. But the likelihood is they'll both be there, and if they are, it would only be natural for them to have the chance to sit down with one another,” he said.

The G20 summit will be held on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19. The APEC Forum is scheduled to take place from Nov. 10 to 16.

Military-to-Military Communications

Sullivan said a positive outcome of his trip was that the two sides agreed to arrange a call between the heads of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and China’s Southern Theater Command soon.

“We are going to look for a deepening of the military-to-military communication so that we can pass that on to President Biden’s successor,” Sullivan said.

He added that his talks with General Zhang Youxia allows them “to give impetus and momentum to those military-to-military lines of communication.” Zhang is the vice chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission (CMC), a decision-making body of the country’s military that is chaired by Xi.

The last time a U.S. national security adviser met with a CMC vice chairman in China was in 2016, when Susan Rice of the Obama administration met with Fan Changlong in China. Fan retired from the CMC in 2018.

Zhang told Sullivan that promoting what he called Taiwan’s reunification with China is the communist regime’s “mission and responsibility,” according to the readout released by Chin’s defense ministry. The White House said Sullivan underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

The CCP claims Taiwan as part of its territory, even though the self-ruled island is a de facto independent nation with its own democratically elected government, constitution, currency, and military.

Taiwan has faced military threats and legal warfare from the Chinese regime. On Aug. 29, Taiwan’s defense ministry reported that it had detected 13 Chinese military aircraft, eight warships, and two official ships near the island in the past 24 hours.

The Philippines has been protesting China’s “dangerous maneuvers” against its vessels and planes during routine patrol and resupply missions within its exclusive economic zones, as recognized by international law, to which China is also a signatory.

“We didn’t reach any specific agreements on the South China Sea,” Sullivan said at the press conference. “But we did indicate and reiterate our long-standing commitment to our ally and our longstanding commitment to the rule of law, freedom of navigation, and the free exercise of maritime rights in the South China Sea, and we'll continue to do that.”

Luo Ya contributed to the report.