Direct talks with Xi Jinping are crucial to avoid conflict, says White House adviser Kurt Campbell
- Lower-level meetings that once yielded progress are less effective since Xi has consolidated power, according to Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific affairs coordinator
- ‘In this current environment, ensuring that there is this ability to communicate honestly at the highest level is most important’
Engaging directly with Xi Jinping to prevent inadvertent conflict over Taiwan and check a nuclear arms build-up is vital given the Chinese leader’s ever greater power and the lack of decision-making authority further down the chain, a top White House aide said on Friday.
“In the past, we had a lot of big meetings and engagements,” said Campbell. “In this current environment, ensuring that there is this ability to communicate honestly at the highest level is most important.”
It was evident at the summit that a central part of the Biden administration strategy – partnering with allies to counter Beijing’s increasingly aggressive footprint – was hitting a nerve. In September, Washington held a first in-person summit of the Quad grouping of Japan, Australia, India and the US and, days later, announced a new Australia-United Kingdom-US military (Aukus) military alliance.
Xi made “very clear that a number of things that the United States is doing cause China some heartburn”, Campbell said at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. “At the top of that list is our bilateral reinforcing and revitalising our bilateral security alliances,” which Xi characterised as “cold war thinking”, he added.