Officials from China and the United States met this week where they expressed plans for a peaceful relationship between the two nations.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press (AP) reported that U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke about meeting with Wang Yi, a senior foreign policy official for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, where he expressed efforts to maintain a good relationship with Beijing.
"President Biden has been very clear in his conversations with President Xi that he is committed to managing this important relationship responsibly," Sullivan told Wang on Tuesday, ahead of their discussion.
The primary aim of Sullivan's visit, which runs through Thursday, is modest—focused on maintaining communication in a relationship that largely deteriorated throughout 2022-23 and has only recently been mended over the past several months.
No major announcements are anticipated, but Sullivan's meetings may help pave the way for a potential final summit between Biden and Xi before the former leaves office in January.
Ahead of the meeting between the two officials, Wang, who serves as the head of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Central Foreign Affairs Commission office, spoke about the ongoing relationship between China and the U.S.
According to Wang, the "key" of the relationship is "to keep to the overall direction of mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and win-win cooperation."
While speaking with the AP, Da Wei, a U.S. and international relations expert at Tsinghua University in Beijing, explained that China and the U.S. should avoid any conflicts over the next few months during the end of Biden's time in office, noting that it could help pave the way for the next administration following the November presidential elections.
"The goal of this visit is not reaching new breakthroughs or progress but to continue the stable momentum of China-U.S. relations in the past year through strategic communication, and to avoid new crises in the next few months," Da told the AP.
The Biden administration has adopted a hardline stance on China, treating it as a strategic competitor by restricting its access to advanced technology and pushing back against its efforts to expand influence over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
China's Foreign Ministry stated this week that relations with the U.S. are at "a critical juncture." While acknowledging ongoing discussions on climate and other issues, the ministry accused the U.S. of continuing efforts to constrain and suppress China.
"The upcoming visit will also be the first visit to China by a national security adviser to the U.S. president after eight years, and the first visit to China by NSA Sullivan," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said before reference a meeting in San Francisco between Biden and Xi in November 2023. "It is an important step for the two sides to implement the common understandings the two presidents reached at their San Francisco meeting.
"After San Francisco, the diplomatic, financial, law enforcement and climate teams and the militaries of the two sides have maintained communication, and the exchanges between the two peoples have increased. Meanwhile, the United States has kept containing and suppressing China. And China has taken resolute countermeasures. The China-U.S. relationship is still at a critical juncture of being stabilized."
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