Editorial | China and US working together can better resolve Red Sea crisis
- Beijing and Washington need each other’s support or cooperation to address key global issues such as securing vital international shipping routes
The Red Sea crisis has added a new dimension to China-United States relations. The two sides have different perspectives of the Israel-Gaza conflict that gave rise to this new challenge, but both have vital interests in protecting a critical trade route now under attack by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Foreign Minister Wang Yi and United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan focused on the Red Sea crisis in their latest talks, with the US pressing China to use its friendly relations with Iran to curb the attacks, and China concerned with safeguarding a key Asia-Europe trade route.
There is a message here. We are reminded that it is difficult for the US to address global issues like this one without China’s support or cooperation. For China, this is equally true in general, if not even more so because it remains the smaller power.
Hopefully this mutual interest can have the positive effect of pulling the two together in the search for solutions, and provide a platform for greater understanding and trust.
The Red Sea attacks are another example that when it comes to a global crisis, the two need to work together and make the best of an opportunity to advance ties.
A coordinated effort would build on the consensus reached between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden at their November summit that unfroze a wide range of diplomatic contacts. The Wang-Sullivan meeting was their third in nine months, and the most senior dialogue since the presidential summit. US officials confirmed the two presidents may talk again on the phone before too long.
Election year in the US introduces many uncertainties, not least among them who will be in the White House a year from now. In such a fluid political situation, what can define a bilateral relationship – particularly one as important as that between China and the US – is sometimes not just an individual leader but regular and backchannel contact between rank-and-file bureaucrats and officials.