BEIJING: The United States and China are working to ensure the competition between them does not veer into conflict, a top White House official said Tuesday as the two sides started talks on a relationship that has been severely tested during President Joe Biden’s term in office.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, is meeting over two days with Wang Yi, a senior foreign policy official for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in a scenic lake area on the northern outskirts of Beijing.
“President Biden has been very clear in his conversations with President Xi that he is committed to managing this important relationship responsibly,” Sullivan said in brief remarks to media before the talks began.
The goal of his visit, which lasts through Thursday, is limited to try to maintain communication in a relationship that broke down for the better part of a year in 2022-23 and was only nursed back over several months.
No major announcements are expected, though Sullivan’s meetings could lay the groundwork for a possible final summit with Xi before Biden steps down in January.
“The key is to keep to the overall direction of mutual respect, peaceful co-existence, and and win-win cooperation,” said Wang, the director of the Communist Party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office.