U.S. national security adviser Jack Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi held talks in Vienna in an attempt to stabilize relations between the two countries, which have fallen to their lowest level since diplomatic relations were normalized in 1979.
The White House said they had two days of “candid, substantive and constructive” discussions on U.S.-China relations, global security matters, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Taiwan.
“The two sides agreed to maintain this important strategic channel of communication to advance these goals, building on the engagement between President Biden and President Xi in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022,” the White House said.
In Bali, during the G20 summit, the two leaders agreed that they needed to set a “bottom line” in the relationship between the two countries and ensure that the rivalry between the major powers does not “turn into conflict”, especially as the situation in Taiwan remains high. tense situations.
Early efforts to initiate high-level talks following the Bali meeting were derailed when a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over North America was shot down by the United States off the coast of South Carolina in early February. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken canceled a planned visit to China because of the incident.
Blinken met Wang at the Munich Security Conference in February, but it was a tense and unproductive meeting.
He is now trying to reschedule a trip to China, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are also trying to reschedule trips to Beijing. But the two sides have so far been unable to reach an agreement unless Sullivan negotiates a deal with Wang in Vienna.
The Financial Times reported last month that China was reluctant to grant Blinken’s visit because it feared the FBI planned to release a report on Chinese balloons after analyzing debris salvaged off the coast of South Carolina.
The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Beijing had told Washington it was unwilling to arrange a meeting between Defense Minister Li Shangfu and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore in June. China wants the United States to lift sanctions against Li in 2018 as a precondition for any meeting.
The United States has told Beijing that restrictions related to Chinese purchases of Russian fighter jets and missiles do not preclude meetings in third countries. But Beijing believes it would be inappropriate to agree to talks while their defense minister is still under sanctions. Several people familiar with the debate in the Biden administration said there was no intention to lift Trump-era restrictions on Lee.
Biden has also been trying to arrange a call with Xi Jinping in an attempt to break the deadlock in the relationship between the two countries. During his first two years in office, Sullivan met with then-rival Yang Jiechi several times in third countries for talks that often paved the way for leaders to call, videoconference or face-to-face meetings.
In another sign that relations may be improving slightly, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns in Beijing this week. U.S. Trade Representative Catherine Day is also expected to meet Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao at the APEC trade conference in Detroit this month.
The incoming Chinese ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, will arrive soon, possibly as soon as this month, several people familiar with the matter said. The post was vacant for months after his predecessor, Qin, left Washington to become China’s foreign minister.