US National Security Adviser Holds Rare Meeting With Senior Military Official in China

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday met with a senior Chinese military official in a bid to manage tensions brewing between China and U.S. treaty allies in the region.

Sullivan met with General Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which is China’s top military body helmed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping. According to a readout of the meeting from the White House, Sullivan emphasized that both nations “have a responsibility to prevent competition from veering into conflict or confrontation.”

“The two sides reaffirmed the importance of regular military-to-military communications as part of efforts to maintain high-level diplomacy and open lines of communication,” according to the White House.

The meeting marks a rare engagement between China and the United States. The last time a U.S. national security adviser met with a CMC vice chairman in China happened in 2016, when Susan Rice of the Obama administration met with Fan Changlong in China. Fan retired from the CMC in 2018.

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