Biden will push China to resume military ties with US, official says

 US President Joe Biden needs to restore military-to-military binds with China, White House public safety consultant Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, days before the president and the Chinese chief are set to meet.

Biden will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping face to face without precedent for a year on Wednesday during the Asia-Pacific Financial Participation culmination in San Francisco. It will be just the second face to face gathering between the two chiefs since Biden got down to business in January 2021.

“The president is determined to see the re-establishment of military-to-military ties because he believes it’s in the US national security interest,” Sullivan said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“We need those lines of communication so that there aren’t mistakes or miscalculations or miscommunication.”

Sullivan said restored military ties could take place at every level from senior leadership to the tactical operational level, as well “on the water and in the air in the Indo-Pacific.”

Sullian said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Biden would seek to “advance the ball” on military ties during his meeting with Xi, but declined to provide further details.

“The Chinese have basically severed those communication links. President Biden would like to re-establish that,” Sullivan said. “This is a top agenda item.”

The Biden-Xi meeting is expected to cover global issues from the Israel-Hamas war to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea’s ties with Russia, Taiwan, the Indo-Pacific, human rights, fentanyl production, artificial intelligence, as well as “fair” trade and economic relations, a senior U.S. official said.

Relations between the two countries grew frosty after Biden ordered the shooting down in February of a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States. But top Biden administration officials have since visited Beijing and met with their counterparts to rebuild communications and trust.

The plan is to set aside enough time for in-depth conversations on issues that will be divided into different sessions, senior administration officials say. That recalls Biden’s nearly three-hour meeting with Xi before the start of last year’s G-20 summit in Bali.

The offiials also noted that this will be Xi’s first trip to the United States in six years, and his first to San Francisco since he was a provincial Communist Party secretary.

Victor Cha, former director for Asian Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council, said organising such meetings at APEC is easier than at a formal location. But, he said, hammering out talks on summit sidelines is still “a logistics nightmare.”