When U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Aug. 27-28, the White House characterized the meeting as “candid, substantive and constructive.” The “candid” part meant that Sullivan got his digs in on the U.S. commitment to preventing “advanced U.S. technologies being used to undermine our national security"—because China is allegedly stealing them; complaining about China’s “unfair trade policies” and “the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”; expressing concerns “about the P.R.C.’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base and its impact on European and transatlantic security.” Sullivan added the outrageous claim that China is taking “destabilizing actions against lawful Philippine maritime operations in the South China Sea.”
When President Xi Jinping met with Sullivan outside Beijing this afternoon, he turned the tables on him quite beautifully, to which the poor National Security Advisor could only respond with the same litany of complaints about China, previously presented to Wang Yi. Addressing the role that China and the U.S. should play as great powers, Xi challenged Sullivan with the assertion that the two together “should be responsible for history, for the people and for the world, and should be a source of stability for world peace and a propeller for common development.” In a changing and turbulent world, countries need solidarity and coordination, not division or confrontation, Xi admonished. When the two powers engage with each other, he added, they must “develop a right strategic perception.” What is the answer to the overarching question, he asked: “Are we rivals or partners?”