The US and China could easily veer towards a conflict if their “complex and competitive” relationship is not well managed, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has warned ahead of the much-anticipated summit between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Biden and Xi are scheduled to meet in San Francisco on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leadership meeting in San Francisco. The two top leaders last met face-to-face at the G20 Summit in Bali in November 2022. Biden, 80, and Xi, 70, had already known each other for more than a decade before Biden became President in 2021.
Sullivan on Monday said the US president has the opportunity to engage on how they effectively manage peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The two sides are also expected to discuss China’s aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific region.
Sullivan said the most important thing is that “this is a complex and a competitive relationship that could easily veer into conflict or confrontation if it’s not well managed”.
“So, managing the relationship effectively is the single most important responsibility of the president and everyone who works for him on this file,” Sullivan told reporters at a news conference here.
Taiwan is likely to be at the top of the list of topics China will be keen to discuss with Biden. Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island, which is set to hold elections early next year. China has held provocative military exercises around Taiwan in recent months to warn the island against taking any steps to declare independence.
The Israel-Hamas war, the war in Ukraine, human rights and trade disputes are expected to be discussed during the Biden-Xi meeting.
Bilateral relations plunged to a new low last August when Beijing cut off major communication channels with Washington in retaliation for a high-level US visit to Taiwan. Attempts to restore dialogue were derailed this February when a US fighter jet shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over American airspace.
Since then, the US has spent months seeking to engage China, its biggest strategic rival, including dispatching four cabinet-level officials to Beijing in recent months.
“Those are some of the issues that, through intense diplomacy, we have been able to manage,” Sullivan said.
“Then we will look for opportunities to actually generate affirmative outcomes that deliver tangible progress for the American people in areas where our interests overlap. I mentioned, for example, the issue of fentanyl.
“We’re hoping to see some progress on that issue this coming week, and that could then open the door to further cooperation on other issues where we aren’t just managing things, but we’re actually delivering tangible results,” Sullivan said.