Prof. ST Hsieh
Director, US-China Energy Industry Forum
626-376-7460
September 17, 2023
It is always encouraging that high level meetings of US and China are happening. US-China relation is complex and sensitive, quiet diplomacy is a necessity. It was not a secret meeting between Sullivan and Wang, it was an unannounced meeting so that there would be no news media and grandstanding in front of TV camera. As long as both nations make public disclosures of the meeting, that should be good enough.
Judging from the news reports from the US and China, it appears that both sides are satisfied with the private meeting protocol and mechanism. It seems also that both sides have limited their focus on Taiwan somewhat. Of course, both the US and China have made repeated announcements about Taiwan, but there are lack of clear understanding and trust of each other’s words vs intentions.
If the US focused on enhancing an economic relation with Taiwan without providing Taiwan with modern arsenals, China would be comfortable. However, the US congress often has a more aggressive agenda with Taiwan than the administration. In response, China has staged active military exercises around Taiwan that gives the anti-China hawks around the world sounding alarms about the importance of “peace and stability of the Taiwan strait.”
In reality, no one in the US and/or in China could afford a US-China military confrontation over Taiwan. People in Taiwan is also very aware of the bloody consequence of a war with China, with or without US support.
Unfortunately, war could start anywhere any time by fools. People around the world should learn lessons from the proxy war in Ukraine.
Biden’s national security adviser secretly meets China’s foreign minister in bid to ease strained ties
Carol E. Lee
Updated Sun, September 17, 2023 at 1:56 PM PDT·3 min read
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, secretly met in Europe this weekend with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to two U.S. officials, a significant step in U.S. efforts to repair deeply strained relations with China.
Sullivan and Wang Yi held discussions Saturday and Sunday in Malta as “part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly managing the relationship,” one of the officials said.
Their talks could lay the groundwork for a much-anticipated meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping this fall aimed at easing tensions between the world’s two largest economies in the wake of the surveillance balloon saga and China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Biden administration has worried that a lack of communication between the two countries could lead to an unintentional confrontation and has sought in recent months to get relations back on track after they hit a new low in February when the Pentagon shot down the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the U.S.
Biden and Xi have not spoken in nearly a year.
Biden said he was “disappointed” that Xi did not attend a summit this month for the Group of 20 leading world economies in India. When asked after the summit when he expected to meet again with Xi, Biden said, “I hope I get to see Mr. Xi sooner than later.”
Sullivan’s meeting follows a series of high-level talks between U.S. and Chinese officials in recent months. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo visited China last month. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen traveled to Beijing in July.
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng will be attending the assembly, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a news conference Friday, suggesting the country’s top diplomat, Wang, might skip the meeting.
Sullivan, speaking to reporters on Friday, didn’t rule out a possible meeting between a top U.S. official and China’s vice president, who is expected to attend the U.N. General Assembly in the absence of Xi.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
National security adviser, China’s top diplomat take fresh stab at cooling U.S.-China tensions
Nahal Toosi and Ari Hawkins
Sun, September 17, 2023 at 8:46 AM PDT
A senior aide to President Joe Biden quietly held meetings with China’s top diplomat this weekend in Malta, the latest effort to ease tensions between Washington and Beijing.
“The two sides committed to consultations in key areas, specifically on political and security developments in the Asia Pacific,” when it comes to maritime issues and policy planning, which will take place in the coming months, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the meetings.
For much of Biden’s time in office — as relations between the United States and China have soured — the U.S. has struggled to get the Chinese to even engage in senior-level phone calls.
“This meeting was part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the relationship,” the White House said in a Sunday statement announcing the meeting.
Wang Yi is a key figure in both the Chinese Communist Party and China’s administrative ranks. He previously held a quiet round of meetings with Sullivan in Vienna.
The talks in Malta were “candid, substantive and constructive,” the White House said in its readout.
“The two sides discussed key issues in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and cross-Strait issues, among other topics,” the readout added, without getting into details.
The White House noted, in particular, that discussions included the” “importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Phelim Kine contributed to this report.
Biden aide held hours of ‘constructive’ talks with Chinese diplomat
Updated Sun, September 17, 2023 at 1:55 PM PDT
By Steve Holland and Laurie Chen
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) -White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Malta for hours this weekend, Beijing and Washington said on Sunday, as the world’s two largest economies seek to stabilize troubled relations.
Both sides held “candid, substantive and constructive” talks during multiple meetings held Sept. 16-17, according to separate statements from the White House and the Chinese foreign ministry published on Sunday.
There were also “limited” early signs that severed military communications between the two sides may start to be restored, a senior Biden administration official said.
Sullivan’s meeting with Wang was the latest in a series of high-level discussions between U.S. and Chinese officials that could lay the groundwork for a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.
The Malta talks spanned about 12 hours over the two days, a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
China’s foreign ministry said both sides agreed to maintain high-level exchanges and hold bilateral consultations on Asia-Pacific affairs, maritime affairs and foreign policy.
The United States told China it was ready to work together on counter-narcotics, artificial intelligence and climate change even as it expressed concerns over unspecified Chinese support for Russia and Beijing recently sending fighter jets across the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. official said.
Wang cautioned the United States that the Taiwan issue is the “first insurmountable red line of Sino-U.S. relations,” according to the Chinese foreign ministry statement. China claims the self-ruled island as its own territory.
The U.S. official said “there have been some small or limited indications” that Beijing is ready to re-open some cross-military communications used to de-escalate conflict between the two countries after those ties were cut following an Aug. 2022 visit by former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan that enraged China.
In its statement, the White House strongly suggested that more meetings are to come between the U.S. and China, adding that both sides “committed to maintain this strategic channel of communication and to pursue additional high-level engagement and consultations in key areas … in the coming months.”
White House adviser Jake Sullivan holds ‘candid’ talks with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi
South China Morning Post
Sun, September 17, 2023 at 2:30 AM PDT
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held “candid” talks on Taiwan and the Russian war in Ukraine with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for two days, according to announcements from Washington and Beijing on Sunday, the second such meeting in four months.
Both sides called the two days of talks in Malta on Saturday and Sunday “candid, substantive and constructive” and said the two officials committed to further high-level dialogue, but did not say when the next round would be or who would lead them.
“The two sides discussed key issues in the US-China bilateral relationship, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and cross-Strait issues, among other topics,” the White House said in a readout. “The United States noted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Like most other Western countries, the US does not recognise Taiwan as an independent country, although Washington is committed by its Taiwan Relations Act to support the self-ruled island’s defence capability.
Beijing’s announcement, which called for “strategic communication focusing on stabilizing and improving Sino-US relations” stressed differences over Taiwan.
“Wang Yi emphasized that the Taiwan issue is the first insurmountable red line in Sino-US relations,” Wang’s department said. “The United States must abide by the three Sino-US joint communiques and implement its commitment not to support ‘Taiwan independence’.
“China’s development has strong endogenous driving force and follows inevitable historical logic. It cannot be stopped,” it continued. “The Chinese people’s legitimate right to development cannot be deprived.”
Tension around Taiwan and assurances by US officials that Washington is not trying to decouple from China economically or contain the country’s influence, have topped the agendas for all of these meetings.
Yet both sides have made recent moves that the other sees as upsetting the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
The People’s Liberation Army, for example, has mobilised aircraft from different theatre commands to take part in an “island encirclement patrol” near Taiwan.
The drills coincided with joint sea and air training conducted by the PLA’s Shandong aircraft carrier in the western Pacific Ocean since early this week. According to earlier reports it involved a total of 42 naval ships from the Eastern and Southern Theatre Commands.
The US Congress and the Biden administration have been pushing measures to strengthen economic ties with Taiwan.
With Wang scheduled to visit Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week, and Chinese President Xi Jinping skipping the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, no high-level US-China engagement will take place at the annual event.