White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Communist Party Politburo Member and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi this week.
The two leaders met in Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday and Thursday, engaging in "candid, substantive, and constructive discussions on key issues in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and cross-Strait issues, among other topics," according to a White House readout of their meeting.
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Their meeting comes amid talk of a conversation between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Biden told reporters on Wednesday regarding such a conversation, "There’s been progress. It'll work out."
The two officials met in March amid heightened tensions between the United States and China due to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's visit to the U.S. and meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
China has snubbed U.S. requests for high-level communication dating back to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponing his trip to China in early March after Beijing was accused of operating a surveillance balloon that traversed the continental U.S. before the military shot it down off the coast of South Carolina.
A top Pentagon official described China's decision to largely ignore U.S. outreach as a ploy to spook the U.S. into leaving the region.
“And [Chinese officials take the view] that if we want to avoid crises, there's a simple solution and that's just to get out of the Western Pacific, and to abandon our alliances and partnerships, and leave,” the Pentagon’s Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, told Foreign Policy last month. “And leave that part of the world to be an exclusive sphere of influence lorded over by Beijing.”
The White House's readout of Sullivan's meeting with Wang said it was a "part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition."
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during a Senate subcommittee hearing on Thursday that "I think we need to open that door and continue to engage each other" despite China's current refusal.
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It also comes as a part of Beijing's continued military modernization and more aggressive behavior in the region. Chinese leaders have publicly said they want the military to be prepared to invade Taiwan by 2027, though U.S. officials have said they don't believe conflict is inevitable.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was his belief that Chinese leaders believe conflict with the U.S. is "inevitable" but does not believe that a war between them is "imminent."