Jake Sullivan’s China visit: Sino-American ties and the question of Biden’s legacy

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan began his three-day China visit on Tuesday, becoming the first US NSA to visit Beijing since 2016. Sullivan met Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing, which, as per analysts, is aimed at setting the stage for the final Biden-Xi summit before the American president leaves office in January 2025.

Before the closed-door talks, Wang described the US-China relations as ‘critical’, which have taken ‘twists and turns’ but have a bearing on the world, while Sullivan said that the agreements and the disagreements between the two largest economies “need to be managed effectively and substantially”.

In this visit, Sullivan would push for a resumption of theatre-level military-to-military talks while raising US concerns about China’s “increased military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan”, and hear China’s “assessment of the situation in the Middle East”.

The meeting is in line with a series of senior Biden administration members visiting the Chinese capital after the ties dipped post the Chinese Spy-Balloon incident in the early months of 2023, followed by the Biden-Xi summit in November of the same year. Both Treasure Secretary Janet L Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing in April 2024.

As per experts, in the final months of his presidency, Joe Biden has “pushed for direct diplomacy” and aims to stabilise the otherwise rocky ties. Many Republicans led by Donald Trump have called this approach ‘too soft’. Remarkably, it was under Trump’s presidency that the ‘trade war’ kicked off between Washington and Beijing in 2019.

However, the tariff war was not reversed under Biden’s presidency and was in fact aggravated when he imposed ‘steep duties’ upon China-made electric cars, solar panels, and steel. And Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris asserts that America, and not China, will win the 21st century. The fact that Biden saw merits in diplomacy is praiseworthy, but Washington’s support for the Tibetan cause and the independence of Taiwan will not be overlooked by Beijing, which considers breaching One-China policy as a diplomatic red line. Also, Beijing is critical of US tariffs on a range of manufactured goods and export controls targeting Chinese chip makers.

Sullivan has been Biden’s point person in dealing with Communist Party leaders and the Washington-China divide; it was he and Wang in Vienna in May 2023 that the two countries launched a delicate process of putting relations back on track.

This visit in the same vein is a step to have ‘stable’ ties and ‘substantial and constructive’ talks amid differences on geopolitical issues and competition in the global market.

It is also a continuation of what Biden and Xi agreed at the summit last November to have their teams speak on military matters, artificial intelligence, and curbing illicit fentanyl production (fentanyl and related substances have contributed to a dramatic rise in drug overdose deaths in the US).

Also, the recent tensions in the South China Sea remain a big conundrum for both trans-Pacific global powers — China and the US. The Philippines (a member of a new security initiative in the Indo-Pacific – Squad – having Australia, Japan, and the US as fellow members) and China have frequent scuffles here.

The US presidential election is approaching, with campaigns reaching their final stage, and with President Biden withdrawing from the race for his second term, it is a time when his term will be assessed. Whatever one’s political disposition, it cannot be denied that the world today is at an unpredictable crossroads, certainly more uncertain than the time when Biden ascended to the presidency. War in Ukraine started in his presidency, and despite being the Vice President when the Iran-nuclear deal was signed, tensions in West Asia have only risen in his presidential tenure, with the Israel-Hamas war having the potential to spillover to a larger regional or even global conflict.

Under these circumstances, if the Biden administration at least reached some understanding with China, despite the aforementioned issues, it would add constructive value to Biden’s legacy as the 46th president of the world’s ‘only superpower’. Biden would not want to be remembered as an American president under whose tenure the world became more polarised, riskier. As for China, Beijing knows whatever be the results of US elections, Sino-American issues will be there, so it continues its cautious moves.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.