Wang Yi Meets with Jake Sullivan in Vienna

May 11, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—In what has been the highest-level meeting with U.S. officials in some time, State Councilor Wang Yi and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met over May 10-11 in Vienna. The short release from the Chinese side indicates that Wang Yi underlined the importance of the Taiwan situation and had a candid, in-depth, substantive, and constructive discussion on promoting Sino-U.S. relations to remove obstacles, stop the decline, and stabilize the relationship. The two sides also exchanged views on the Asian-Pacific situation. The White House readout similarly said that, “The two sides had candid, substantive, and constructive discussions on key issues....”

The meeting is likely part of a broader outreach by American officials to China. Bloomberg reports that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry are all planning trips to China in the coming period, which followed the May 8 meeting in Beijing between U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns with Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Additionally, Yellen and Sullivan have been saying the U.S. doesn’t want to sever economic ties, but wants to address possible “national security concerns.”

At China’s Foreign Ministry press briefing on May 11, spokesman Wang Wenbin replied to a question about the U.S.-China diplomacy: “China and the U.S. are in communication. What matters is that the U.S. cannot keep raising the issue of communication on the one hand, while on the other, keep suppressing and containing China. The U.S. cannot say one thing, but do another.”