The national security adviser of the United States, Jake Sullivan, has met China’s top diplomat Wang Yi as Beijing finds itself embroiled in security rows with key US allies.
Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese military aircraft’s incursion into its airspace on Monday with a military spy plane.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the airspace breach – the first by a military aircraft – was “not only a serious violation of Japan’s sovereignty but it also threatens our security”.
Meanwhile, the Philippine defence chief on Tuesday accused China of being the “biggest disruptor” of peace in Southeast Asia following a week of confrontations between the two countries’ ships near a flashpoint disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
Sullivan’s plane landed at Beijing’s Capital airport just before 2pm (06:00 GMT). He was welcomed on the tarmac by US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Yang Tao.
Sullivan met Wang at a resort on the northern outskirts of the Chinese capital, where they shook hands in front of Chinese and US flags.
In his remarks in front of journalists, Wang described China-US ties as “critical” and which have taken “twists and turns”.
“I hope, as always, the communication will be not only strategic but also substantive and, at the same time, very constructive,” he said.
Before proceeding into a closed-door meeting, Sullivan said they would discuss areas of agreement and disagreement that “need to be managed effectively and substantively”. Washington would also press Beijing on its mounting “military, diplomatic and economic pressure” on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy that China considers part of its territory and has not ruled out reunifying through force.
Credit: aljazeera.com
