US National Security Adviser Susan Rice was expected to land in Beijing yesterday, signaling that ties with China remain a priority despite turmoil and tensions tearing at US foreign policy.
Rice was expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and other senior Chinese officials in talks which come two weeks after Washington accused a Chinese fighter jet of buzzing one of its spy planes.
The talks are likely to focus on key areas of contention between Washington and Beijing — including China’s maritime territorial disputes with Taiwan and US allies in the region, as well as a long-running computer hacking dispute between the two powers.
Rice is also to help set the table for a one-on-one summit between Obama and Xi, planned to coincide with the US leader’s visit to the APEC summit in Beijing in November.
The Obama-Xi summit could take place in an informal setting, following up on the meeting the two leaders held in California last year.
Obama and Xi could also come face-to-face at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month, though no meeting has been announced.
Rice’s visit is intended as a signal that despite being pulled into a new conflict in the Middle East against the Islamic State and being consumed by a showdown with Russia over Ukraine, Washington remains committed to its policy of reorienting US power to Asia.
“The administration remains committed to our rebalance to Asia and that includes close and continuing consultation with top Chinese leadership directly from the White House,” US National Security Council spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.
“The reality is that there are few global problems of the 21st century that will be solved without the US and China at the table, and as such, we believe it is important to maintain direct and close contact with Chinese leadership on a range of pressing issues,” he added.
Rice visits Beijing while other top US foreign policy officials, including US Secretary of State John Kerry, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the top White House counterterrorism advisor, Lisa Monaco, are fanning out across the Middle East to build a coalition to take on the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The fact that Rice is to be in China at the same time is intended to demonstrate the importance that Obama attaches to ties with Beijing, a White House official said.
“In spite of all the rest that is going on, this remains a very high priority,” the official said.
Rice is officially the guest of Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪), but as well as seeing Xi, is also expected to meet Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and other key officials.
She will be in Beijing after China told the US to end air and naval surveillance near its borders, which it said was damaging relations between the Pacific powers and could lead to “undesirable accidents.”
The latest irritant came when Washington said an armed Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close last month to a US military aircraft, off Hainan Island over the South China Sea.
Rice may also take the opportunity to restate Washington’s support for democracy in Hong Kong, after Beijing bristled at its backing for protesters who are demanding universal suffrage in the territory.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan
RSS