Day 2 of China-US talks as Sullivan, Wang discuss Taiwan, fentanyl and global conflicts

Aug. 28, 2024, 4:07 a.m.

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US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan started his second day of meetings with top Chinese officials in Beijing on Wednesday, aimed at quieting tensions between the two superpowers ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

Sullivan, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and others are meeting for talks from Tuesday to Thursday as the two countries are at odds over the Middle East and Ukraine, Chinese territorial claims from Taiwan to the South China Sea and trade.

Advertisement The two sides continued their talks after meetings and a dinner on Tuesday night at a luxurious resort on the outskirts of Beijing.

“Over the past few years, bilateral relations have gone through twists and turns,” Wang told reporters on Tuesday.

“We’ll delve into a wide range of issues, including issues on which we agree on and those issues on where there are still differences that we need to manage effectively and substantively,” said Sullivan.

In the final months of his presidency, Biden has pushed direct diplomacy to influence Chinese President Xi Jinping and keep those tensions at bay; U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in November’s election, would likely pursue a similar strategy.

However many analysts aligned with Republican former President Donald Trump see that approach as too soft, in the face of China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.

Sullivan seeks to expand military-to-military dialogues to encompass the theatre command level, a move that Washington hopes could avert conflict in specific regions such as the Taiwan Strait.

The U.S. also desires China to take proactive measures domestically to prevent the production of chemicals that can be transformed into fentanyl, the leading cause of drug overdoses in the U.S., and reach a mutual understanding regarding safety standards for artificial intelligence.

Beijing intends to voice its disapproval regarding U.S. tariffs on a range of manufactured goods and export controls targeting Chinese chip manufacturers, and discuss its claims of sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan.

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