Sullivan secures one last Xi-Biden phone call

United States national security advisor Jake Sullivan during this three-day Beijing trip ended Thursday successfully secured a phone call between top leaders of China and the US.

The US and China welcomed ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication, including planning for a phone call between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming weeks, the White House said in a statement.

Both sides noted the importance of regular, ongoing military-to-military communications and planned to hold a theater commander telephone call in the near future, according to the statement, which was released after Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.

Before this Beijing meeting, Sullivan and Wang had met four times – in Vienna, Malta, Washington and Bangkok – over the past 16 months. If Biden and Xi have a phone call in September, it will probably be the last one before Biden steps down as US President in January.

Post-meeting statements issued by Beijing and Washington showed that both sides continue to disagree on Taiwan, Russia-Ukraine and South China Sea matters.

On Thursday, Sullivan met with Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the China’s Central Military Commission, and Xi, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“China has always been committed to maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, but ‘Taiwan independence’ and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait are incompatible,” Zhang told Sullivan during their meeting.

“Resolutely opposing ‘Taiwan independence’ and promoting reunification is the mission and responsibility of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,” he said. “The wanton provocations of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces must be