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Odds ‘high’ for another Xi-Biden summit as Jake Sullivan heads to China
- Sullivan expected to suggest a meeting between the two leaders during his visit this week
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The odds are very high but expectations are low for a China-US summit, Chinese observers said as the US president’s national security adviser prepared to touch down in Beijing.
Jake Sullivan will be in the Chinese capital from Tuesday until Thursday for talks with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on “areas of difference” such as Beijing’s alleged support for Russia’s defence industrial base, the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Sullivan’s trip is the first to China by a White House national security adviser in eight years and is widely seen as laying the groundwork for another summit between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
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Lu Xiang, a US-China relations specialist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the possibility of Biden meeting Xi was “very high” and Sullivan was likely to raise the suggestion during his trip.
Lu said Biden might visit China after the US presidential election in November to add the American leader’s political legacy.
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“If he does not come, he will be the only US president [in decades] who has never visited China. That would be a pity for him,” Lu said.
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