The U.S. competition with China should be a “paramount priority” for the incoming Trump administration, as it will define the global landscape in the coming decades, a top Biden official said.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the people Trump is picking for key roles that influence China policy, including Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., as his own successor and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to be secretary of state, “have very much focused on that challenge, and we’ll look forward to talking to them about how we’ve approached it and obviously pass on the current state of play.”
Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet for what is most likely the final time Saturday in Lima, Peru, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It is their first meeting in person since last year’s APEC forum in California and their first time speaking since a phone call in April.
Sullivan said Biden would emphasize to Xi the importance of maintaining communication “at every level, particularly the military-to-military level.”
“There is actual work to do in this critical moment between the U.S. and China to ensure that we don’t run into any problems in the next two months in this transition of power,” he said.
