WASHINGTON — White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will travel to China next week for talks with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, a visit aimed at keeping U.S.-China tensions in check with the November U.
S. election fast approaching. In Aug.
27-29 talks in Beijing, Sullivan will discuss issues ranging from Taiwan to bilateral military talks and the U.S. fentanyl crisis, as well as China’s support for Russia’s defense industry and tensions in the South China Sea, North Korea, the Middle East and Myanmar, a senior U.
S. administration official told reporters. Sullivan has held regular talks with Wang with an eye to managing competition between the superpowers, and they last met in January in Bangkok.
This will be the first visit to China by a U.S. national security adviser since one by Susan Rice under former President Barrack Obama before the 2016 U.
S. election. Sullivan’s trip comes ahead of the Nov.
5 U.S. presidential election that pits Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, the current vice president, against former Republican President Donald Trump, in which U.
S. competition with China is a key foreign policy issue. The U.
S. and China have sought to stabilize rocky ties in the past year since they sank to a historic low point after the U.S.
downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year. Axios reported earlier that Sullivan and Wang are expected to lay the groundwork for a potential meeting between U.S.
President Joe Biden and his Chinese counter.