Biden’s National Security Adviser Will Visit China Next Week

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser at the White House, will travel to China next week to meet with Wang Yi, the country’s foreign minister, in their latest high-level meeting aimed at defusing tensions.

“These meetings are consistent with efforts to maintain this strategic channel of communication to responsibly manage the relationship,” said Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

Mr. Sullivan’s visit will be his fifth face-to-face meeting with Mr. Wang but his only trip to Beijing since the start of the Biden administration. It will also be the first by a U.S. national security adviser since Susan Rice traveled to China on behalf of President Barack Obama in 2016.

A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment on diplomatic discussions, said Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang would discuss potential issues of cooperation, such as efforts to limit the spread of fentanyl, as well as areas where the two countries are locked in disputes, including the future of Taiwan.

A final meeting between President Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, before the end of Mr. Biden’s term is likely to come up. The two last spoke this spring, after a meeting in California in November.

Meetings last year between Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang helped restart diplomatic relations between the two countries after a rocky period that included Mr. Biden’s order to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the United States in early 2023.

But despite a series of high-level conversations since then that have somewhat eased tensions, the United States and China remain in what the Biden administration calls a competitive posture.

The administration has also expressed frustration with