Sullivan in Beijing: Key visit amid US-China tensions and election season

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan arrived in Beijing on August 27 for a three-day visit amid escalating diplomatic tensions between the US and China.

Upon arrival, Sullivan was greeted by Yang Tao, the director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's North American and Oceanian Affairs, and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, Caliber.Az reports citing foreign media.

This visit is notable as it marks the first trip by a US national security adviser to China in eight years and is seen as a step toward facilitating a potential summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chinese media described the visit as an "important move" to advance the agreements made during the leaders' meeting in San Francisco in November.

During his visit, Sullivan is scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi on August 27-28 as both nations seek to stabilize their strained relations. 

The current US-China relationship was initiated in 1971 when Henry Kissinger, then national security adviser to President Richard Nixon, made a secret trip to Beijing to set the stage for normalizing relations with China.

In recent times, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have met five times over the past year and a half — in Washington, Vienna, Malta, Bangkok, and during the November summit in California with Presidents Biden and Xi.

These high-level meetings were sometimes kept under wraps until after they had concluded, with Sullivan and Wang spending extensive hours in private discussions.

Sullivan’s visit also coincides with the lead-up to the US elections in November.