National security advisers of the United States, Jake Sullivan, and China, Wang Yi, met in Malta this weekend in a meeting that was kept top secret until its conclusion. According to statements from both governments, both senior officials held “candid, substantive and constructive” discussions to discuss issues that included the war in Ukraine. The two major economic powers have been trying for months to stabilize their complicated relations after being almost completely frozen, but their deep animosity remains.
According to a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Sullivan and Wang Yi met for a total of 12 hours in separate sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Some progress has been made: Washington has seen “limited” signs that China will allow some communication between the two countries’ militaries. To date, there has been no dialogue that the US believes could lead to an incident triggering a crisis with unforeseeable consequences.
According to the aforementioned source, Sullivan expressed his administration’s concerns about China’s support for Russia in the war in Ukraine and about Beijing’s military pressure on Taiwan, which this week denounced the overflight of dozens of Chinese military aircraft in its exclusion zone. For his part, Wang Yi warned that the island is the “first red line that should not be crossed” in the relationship.
Since a first meeting between Sullivan and Wang Yi in Vienna in May, which was also kept secret until the last moment, the two countries have maintained a number of intensive contacts. That meeting marked a turning point in bilateral relations, which suffered a downturn after the United States shot down a Chinese balloon over its territorial waters in early February, accusing it of spying functions.
Since then, a number of US government representatives have been traveling to Beijing almost every month: In June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In July, the visitor was Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Head of Commerce Gina Raimondo ended her tour just two weeks ago. But these moves by American officials have not been reciprocated by the Chinese side, at least so far.
Xi skipped traveling to New Delhi the previous week for the G-20 summit chaired by India, preventing a face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden, who has assured for months that he would meet his counterpart, and who explained this he himself was “disappointed” by the absence. The White House National Security Council said in statements ahead of the meeting of the world’s major economies that it still does not know whether the Chinese leader will attend the Asia-Pacific Forum for Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, as Washington wants. will take part, scheduled for November in San Francisco.
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Both heads of state and government met last year on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali (Indonesia) to clarify bilateral relations. They then agreed to take measures to manage their rivalry and restore mutual trust. But the hot air balloon incident temporarily put paid to those plans.
The two countries compete on almost every front, from technological leadership to military might, including economic and diplomatic clout. On issues like the situation in Taiwan, the two are diametrically different. China considers the island of democratic government and the region ideologically allied with Washington as an inalienable part of its territory and does not refrain from using force to achieve unification. The United States determines that Taiwan’s status is unclear. Although he insists that he does not support the island’s independence and has a “strategic uncertainty” about whether he would come to its military aid in the event of an attack, he has rapidly intensified his relations with it, particularly since the administration of the island Island former president, Donald Trump.
At the same time, the economies of the United States and China are closely intertwined in a trade relationship worth more than half a trillion dollars annually. The United States insists it wants to manage the relationship in a “responsible” manner, work with China on issues of mutual interest – such as climate change – and manage its differences to prevent disagreements from leading to undesirable consequences. .
In a statement carried by China’s APEC news agency, bilateral consultations will be held on key issues on which both governments differ: Asia-Pacific issues, maritime affairs and foreign policy.
For its part, the White House noted in another statement that both parties are “committed to maintaining this strategic communication channel and continuing high-level contacts and consultations in key areas in the coming months.”
Both countries specifically mentioned Taiwan: Wang warned that the island was “the first red line that should not be crossed in China-US relations.” For his part, Sullivan emphasized the “importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
The meeting in Malta came amid rumors about the disappearance of Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who has not been seen in public for the past two weeks and who Washington suspects has been subjected to a purge. He would be the second minister to be unceremoniously replaced this summer, after then-Foreign Minister Qin Gang was replaced by Wang after just a few months in office. A senior American figure, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the matter was not raised in those conversations.
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