A final meeting between President Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is also likely to come up.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser at the White House, will travel to China next week to meet with Wang Yi, the country’s foreign minister, in their latest high-level meeting aimed at defusing tensions.
“These meetings are consistent with efforts to maintain this strategic channel of communication to responsibly manage the relationship,” said Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Mr. Sullivan’s visit will be his fifth face-to-face meeting with Mr. Wang but his only trip to Beijing since the start of the Biden administration. It will also be the first by a U.S. national security adviser since Susan Rice traveled to China on behalf of President Barack Obama in 2016.
A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment on diplomatic discussions, said Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang would discuss potential issues of cooperation, such as efforts to limit the spread of fentanyl, as well as areas where the two countries are locked in disputes, including the future of Taiwan.
A final meeting between President Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, before the end of Mr. Biden’s term is likely to come up. The two last spoke this spring, after a meeting in California in November.
Meetings last year between Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang helped restart diplomatic relations between the two countries after a rocky period that included Mr. Biden’s order to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the United States in early 2023.
But despite a series of high-level conversations since then that have somewhat eased tensions, the United States and China remain in what the Biden administration calls a competitive posture.
The administration has also expressed frustration with China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its lack of condemnation of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which killed more than 1,200 people, including Americans.
The administration official said on Friday that Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang would also discuss military-to-military communications between the two countries, which were suspended for months after the balloon episode. And the official said the two men would talk about ways to cooperate on ensuring safety and minimizing the risks of artificial intelligence in the future.
The meeting — and a potential final summit involving Mr. Biden — comes just months before a U.S. election in which voters will choose a new president and potentially shift policy toward China, especially if former President Donald J. Trump returns to the White House for a second term.
The official who spoke to reporters on Friday said Mr. Sullivan would not try to speak for a future administration or its policies toward China.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
