US National Security Adviser Holds Rare Meeting With Senior Military Official in China

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan (L) shakes hands with Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, before a meeting at the Bayi building in Beijing on Aug. 29, 2024. Ng Han Guan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday met with a senior Chinese military official in a bid to manage tensions brewing between China and U.S. treaty allies in the region.

Sullivan met with General Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which is China’s top military body helmed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping. According to a readout of the meeting from the White House, Sullivan emphasized that both nations “have a responsibility to prevent competition from veering into conflict or confrontation.”

“The two sides reaffirmed the importance of regular military-to-military communications as part of efforts to maintain high-level diplomacy and open lines of communication,” according to the White House.

The meeting marks a rare engagement between China and the United States. The last time a U.S. national security adviser met with a CMC vice chairman in China happened in 2016, when Susan Rice of the Obama administration met with Fan Changlong in China. Fan retired from the CMC in 2018.

“It is rare that we have the opportunity to have this kind of exchange,” Sullivan told Zhang in his opening remarks. “Given the state of the world and the need for us to responsibly manage the U.S.-China relationship, I think this is a very important meeting.”

Zhang said in his opening remarks that he would like to use the meeting to communicate “frankly” with Sullivan and “exchange views on issues of mutual concern.”

Sullivan and Zhang discussed China’s tensions with Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the U.S. commitment to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and to hold a theater commander phone call “in the near future.”

The pair also talked about Gaza, concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base, and the need to avoid miscalculations and escalations in cyberspace.

On the issue of Taiwan, Sullivan said it was important to have “peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait.

Before meeting with Zhang, Sullivan had lengthy talks with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on Wednesday. During their talks, Wang told Sullivan that “Taiwan belongs to China” and asked that the United States “stop arming Taiwan and support China’s peaceful unification,” according to a Chinese readout.

On Thursday, Taiwan’s foreign ministry released a statement, criticizing Wang for claiming “various fallacies” about the island during talks with Sullivan.

“China’s continued intimidation and suppression of Taiwan, as well as its naked ambitions for military expansion, are the biggest source of risks that undermine regional peace and stability,” the Taiwanese ministry said.

“As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan will continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities and work with like-minded partners such as the United States to defend the rules-based international order, to ensure peace, stability, and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region.”

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

On Wednesday, Manila’s National Maritime Council said it was pushing for a review of the country’s defense treaty with the United States in light of the security challenges posed by China continuing to aggressively assert its territorial claims in the South China Sea despite them being rejected by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016.

“The strategic landscape has changed so much, so maybe it’s high time now to review,” the council’s spokesperson Alexander Lopez told local media. The U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty was signed in 1951.

Lopez added that “engaging traditional allies and newfound allies and rallying these like-minded nations” was part of the Philippines’ diplomatic actions against China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea.

Reuters contributed to the report.