The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met on Thursday with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and held rare talks with a top Chinese military official in a sign that the two countries are communicating at senior levels despite tensions over the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Mr. Sullivan’s meeting with Gen. Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, was the first in years between a senior American official and a vice chair of the commission, which oversees China’s armed forces and is chaired by Mr. Xi. In 2018, Jim Mattis, who was the U.S. defense secretary at the time, met with Gen. Xu Qiliang, who held the vice chair position.
The United States has argued that more open communication is necessary to prevent accidents between the two countries’ warplanes and navy ships as they regularly patrol contested areas like the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
“A meeting with Zhang Youxia is very significant, and an indication that China is prepared to meaningfully re-engage with the Department of Defense,” said Drew Thompson, a visiting senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. “Beijing views the military-to-military relationship as an important political indicator of the overall relationship, which differs somewhat from the U.S. perspective, which sees it as a more pragmatic channel to reduce risk.”
Mr. Sullivan’s meeting with General Zhang, which was held at the headquarters of China’s People’s Liberation Army, came on the final day of his three-day visit to Beijing to bolster the Biden administration’s bid to manage competition with China.
The two countries have been locked in a rivalry for global influence and have seen tensions rise over a raft of issues including China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, its tacit support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the flood of Chinese electric vehicles and solar panels onto global markets.
China has pushed back against what Beijing sees as an effort by the United States to contain China’s rise. In an official statement following Mr. Xi’s meeting with Mr. Sullivan, the Chinese leader depicted the tensions as stemming from problematic views held by the United States.
Mr. Xi said he hoped that the United States would work with China, not regard the country’s development as a challenge to the United States, and “work with China to find a correct way for the two major countries to get along.”
Earlier in the day, General Zhang told Mr. Sullivan that the world expected the two countries to “maintain stability in the military and security fields,” according to a statement released by China’s defense ministry. He also reiterated China’s opposition to American support for Taiwan, the island democracy that Beijing claims.
“China demands that the United States stop military collusion between the United States and Taiwan, stop arming Taiwan, and stop spreading false narratives involving Taiwan,” the general said, according to the official statement.
On Wednesday, Mr. Sullivan and China’s most senior diplomatic official, Wang Yi, said their countries’ top military commanders in the region would hold a video call at some point.
Mr. Thompson said such a call could help reinvigorate lower-level dialogue that used to take place more frequently in the past. Those meetings, he said, allowed military personnel to discuss aerial and maritime maneuvers in greater detail to prevent accidents.
Washington is also concerned about encounters between China and U.S. allies that could draw American forces into a confrontation. That includes the most recent standoff between the Philippines and China near a disputed atoll, Sabina Shoal, where Chinese coast guard vessels have rammed Philippine ships and targeted them with water cannons.
Such regional tensions have led to chilly relations between the Pentagon and the Chinese military over the past several years. China suspended military-to-military communications in 2022 after Nancy Pelosi, who was speaker of the House at the time, visited Taiwan. They were restored in December when President Biden’s senior military adviser, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, held a videoconference call with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Liu Zhenli.
Read More: Top Biden Aide Holds Rare Talks With Chinese Military General
