Xi rolls out the red carpet for US

President Xi Jinping promised new talks with President Joe Biden when he met the White House National Security Adviser in an effort to calm tensions ­between China and America.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday. Picture: Trevor Hunnicutt / pool / AFP

President Xi Jinping promised new talks with President Joe Biden when he met the White House National Security Adviser in an effort to calm tensions ­between China and America.

Mr Xi and senior foreign policy and defence chiefs adopted a conciliatory tone in three days of talks with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, drawing back from threats of war over Taiwan.

The White House said Mr Xi and Mr Biden were planning a call in the coming weeks, and Mr Sullivan said in Beijing on Thursday that the two leaders may meet in person by the end of the year.

As well as meeting Mr Xi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Mr Sullivan was granted a rare meeting with the country’s most senior military official, General Zhang Youxia, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, who outranks the defence minister.

Mr Biden looks likely to be the first US leader since Jimmy Carter more than 40 years ago not to visit China — a sign of the frayed relations between the two countries that were strategic allies until not long ago.

Mr Biden finally met Mr Xi when the Chinese leader visited San Francisco for the APEC summit last November, and Mr Sullivan has been pressing for at least a phone call before his boss leaves ­office.

In return Mr Xi “asked Sullivan to convey his greetings to President Biden and expressed his willingness to continue to maintain communication with President Biden and to steer China-US relations”, according to a report of the meeting from Chinese state media.

After Mr Sullivan’s meetings with Mr Wang, the White House said that winning the release of Americans deemed wrongfully detained in China or otherwise barred from leaving the country was a priority for the rest of Biden’s time in office.

China had hoped for better – or at least more consistent – relations with the US under Mr Biden after the Trump presidency. Donald Trump had at first claimed to regard Mr Xi as a “friend” and spoke about Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a similar manner. However, he then turned on Beijing, imposing trade tariffs in 2018 and then mocking it over Covid, which he called “the China virus”.

The Biden White House has turned the screw, criticising China forcefully over human rights, ­imposing more trade tariffs and forging ever closer military ties with allies in the Pacific, including Japan, Taiwan and The Philippines.

US analysts have been warning that Chinese military modernisation has reached a stage where the People’s Liberation Army could attack Taiwan with a view to “reunification” by 2027, a date that coincides with the end of Mr Xi’s third term in office.

In the latest meetings with Mr Sullivan, however, officials, including Mr Wang, have stressed that their “red line” is Taiwanese independence. The standard interpretation is that China will not invade so long as Taiwan’s government does not formally declare itself to be an independent state.

“Resolutely opposing Taiwan independence and promoting ­reunification is the mission and duty of the People’s Liberation Army,” General Zhang told Mr Sullivan, according to state media. “We must respond to the reckless provocations of the Taiwan independence forces.”

Mr Wang also made reference to “peaceful reunification”.

The word “peaceful” was left out of the annual government­ ­report to the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, in March.

Mr Sullivan met Mr Wang for 11 hours on Wednesday, a long meeting even by the standards of Asian summits.

However, such meetings do little to remove the underlying causes of tension: there seems little chance that the US will change its hostile stance towards the industrial subsidies that it says underpin China’s ­export success.

THE TIMES