China’s Xi Jinping meets US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan

BEIJING – U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he raised concerns about the country’s focus on economic security during meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials this week.

Just as the US has cited national security concerns over its own restrictions on imports of Chinese technology, China has increasingly emphasized the need to protect its economic security.

Foreign companies in China have complained about vague data rules and preferential treatment for local players, as well as subsidies that allow Chinese companies to sell at much lower prices.

Sullivan told reporters on Thursday that he had discussed the impact of such issues on Western companies and supply chains.

“We have taken the issue vigorously and taken action, but clearly we have not come to an agreement,” Sullivan told reporters at a news conference at the end of the trip.

Sullivan, an adviser to the outgoing Biden administration, said his trip to China was part of an effort to manage bilateral relations ahead of the inauguration of a new US president in January.

It comes just over a month after US President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat candidate.

Sullivan said he told Chinese officials how Harris was a “central member” of Biden’s foreign policy team and was known to China’s top leaders, including because he had met with Xi.

The security adviser said Harris “shares” Biden’s views on responsibly managing competition so that it does not become confrontational, and that high-level communication is the way to deal with that.

Sullivan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for two days of meetings during his first trip to China as national security adviser. He will leave China later Thursday.

During his visit, Sullivan met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission.

Biden and Xi plan to speak by phone in the coming weeks, the White House said Wednesday, and Sullivan indicated to reporters that the leaders would likely meet in person on the sidelines of a multilateral conference later this year.

Earlier Thursday, Xi said in a statement he told Sullivan that Beijing hopes Washington will find “a good way” to deal with each other.

“Although there have been great changes in the two countries and in China-US relations, China’s commitment to the goal of a stable, healthy and lasting China-US relationship remains unchanged,” Xi said, according to a English-language publication shared by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Tensions between the world’s two largest economies have escalated in recent years, spilling over from trade to finance and technology.

The Chinese leader said Thursday that he hopes the US will view China’s economic growth “in a positive” light and “work with China to find a good way for two major countries to get along,” Beijing said. China surpassed Japan in 2010 to become the world’s second-largest economy after the United States.

The last official trip to China by a US president’s national security adviser was in 2016, when Susan Rice traveled to Beijing under the Obama administration.

While the outcome of November’s U.S. presidential election remains unclear, tough action against Beijing is a rare issue on which both U.S. political parties agree.

Harris’ current national security adviser, Phil Gordon, said in May at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations that the “China challenge” is far greater than Taiwan’s, and requires ensuring that Beijing “does not have the advanced technology , intelligence and military capabilities’. who can challenge us.”