Xi To Sullivan: U.S. and China Should Be ‘Responsible for History … and a Source of Stability for World Peace’

Aug. 30-—When U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met in China with its Foreign Minister Wang Yi o 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, 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?”

The Chinese leader went on to describe his nation’s foreign policy in terms that are well known—it is open and transparent; there are no hidden agendas. China is committed to maintaining its own affairs, to continuing to carry out comprehensive reforms to develop its system of “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” and to working with other nations for common development. Will the U.S. work with China in the same direction? To find a right way for China and the United States, “to coexist in peace and achieve common development on this planet, and work to maintain the stability of China-U.S. relations and, on that basis, improve and take forward the relationship”? An unnerved Sullivan was left to deny that the U.S. was taking aggressive action against China, that it doesn’t seek Taiwan’s independence, that it adheres to the One China policy, etc.