U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to hold talks over the phone this spring as part of efforts to responsibly manage tensions between their countries, a senior administration official said Saturday.
"This leader-level channel is absolutely critical to maintaining direction in the relationship and following up on some of the issues" from when they met last time in person in November, the U.S. official said after a meeting between Biden's top security aide Jake Sullivan and China's top diplomat Wang Yi in Thailand.
Sullivan and Wang had more than 12 hours of discussions over two days from Friday in Bangkok, with topics ranging from bilateral issues, such as military-to-military communication and the safety of artificial intelligence, to Taiwan and the Iran-backed Houthis' attacks against shipping in the Red Sea, according to the official.
Sullivan's meeting with Wang was the first held in an in-person format between senior officials of the two countries since Taiwan's presidential election in mid-January, which Lai Ching-te of the ruling, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won.
Wang underscored that the election outcome did not change the fact that Taiwan is part of China, the country's Foreign Ministry said.
"The biggest risk to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is 'Taiwan independence' and the biggest challenge to China-U.S. relations is also 'Taiwan independence'," Wang was quoted by the ministry as telling Sullivan.
The White House, meanwhile, said Sullivan emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the strait to Wang, the most senior foreign policy official in China's Communist Party, which regards the self-ruled island as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
The U.S. official, who spoke to the press on condition of anonymity, said Sullivan reiterated that Washington remains committed to its one-China policy and does not support the independence of Taiwan.
In the meeting, intended to follow up on the summit between the U.S. and Chinese presidents in November near San Francisco, the two high-ranking officials discussed next steps for some of their agreements at the time, according to the White House.
They included the launch of a counternarcotics working group on Tuesday, the administration official said, with China having agreed to step up efforts to choke off exports of ingredients for fentanyl, a drug responsible for a deadly overdose epidemic in the United States.
In dealing with risks posed by advanced forms of AI, the United States and China expect to hold talks "sometime in the spring," the official said, adding that they hope to resume higher levels of military-to-military channels also around the same time.
The official also said that while Sullivan and Wang, who also serves as China's foreign minister, did not discuss specific dates, Washington expects Secretary of State Antony Blinken to travel to the Asian country at some point this year.
To bring an immediate end to the repeated attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on commercial ships transiting the Red Sea, the official said that Sullivan raised "the importance of Beijing using its substantial leverage with Iran."
Related coverage:
China's top diplomat warns U.S. against Taiwan independence
Biden to host Japan PM Kishida in Washington on April 10
U.S. to keep supporting Ukraine if Trump returns to power: Mike Pompeo
