- Yamal wants to become a Barcelona 'legend'
- OpenAI releases reasoning AI with eye on safety, accuracy
- State judge strikes down North Dakota abortion ban
- No.1 Korda opens Solheim Cup for USA versus Hull and Henseleit
- Trump rules out new Harris debate as swing state fight resumes
- Bomb threat rattles US city in Republican anti-migrant conspiracy
- ECB rate cut boosts European stocks as Wall Street extends rally
- Alvarez aims to stop knockout artist Berlanga in latest title defence
- Business groups ask Ottawa to prevent Air Canada strike
- Cooler weather helps, but Los Angeles fires still out of control
- Macron, ex-PM remember bloody liberation of French port
- Noel Gallagher's 'Brit Pop' guitars go under hammer
- US clears way for hearing aid feature in new Apple AirPods Pro
- Hamilton not disappointed by Newey move to Aston Martin
- Final report clears WADA in Chinese swimmers case, adds rules need strengthening
- US calls for Africa to get two permanent UN Security Council seats
- Burrow's Bengals aim to bounce back against Chiefs
- Ingebrigtsen says getting stronger, bullish over world records
- Putin warns West risks 'war' if it backs Ukraine long-range strikes
- Peru mourns divisive former strongman Fujimori
- Vaughan's son takes 11 wickets as Somerset revive title bid by beating champions Surrey
- Long-awaited case on Man City charges to start on Monday: report
- PSG refuse League order to pay Mbappe disputed €55 million
- Harris, Trump target swing states after fierce debate
- Ten Hag hits back at Ronaldo criticism over Man Utd ambition
- Oscar hopefuls to bookend US French film festival
- UN chief calls for 'courage' ahead of Summit of the Future
- French rugby federation blames 'poorly managed' supervision for youth player drowning
- Movie producer Harvey Weinstein indicted on new charges: US media
- Ex-Scotland captain Hogg to miss Montpellier match after bail release
- 'Historic': Bad weather slashes wine harvest in France's Jura
- ECB rate cut boosts European stocks, euro
- Piastri not 'pulling over' for Norris at every race
- 'Energised' Tebogo looking to close season with Diamond League bang
- Millions in SE Asia battle floods, death toll passes 250
- Fiat 500 electric production pauses for one month
- London Fashion Week opens with Charli XCX party and second-hand runways
- ECB cuts rates again, Lagarde backs EU reform call
- Storm Francine downgraded but still drenching US south
- Everton say 'work to be done' on Textor takeover
- Shelling kills 3 Red Cross workers in E.Ukraine
- Shelling kills 3 Red Cross workers killed in E.Ukraine
- Iran president makes 'historic' visit to Iraqi Kurdistan
- Brigitte Macron awarded damages over false trans claim
- ECB rate cut boosts Europeans stocks, euro
- Deadly Israeli strike on Gaza school draws global condemnation
- Russia recaptures part of Kursk region
- Bike-loving Dutch grapple with 'fatbike' phenomena
- Ahead of Champions League warm-up, PSG are soaring and Brest slumping
- ECB cuts rates again as inflation slows
Top Biden advisor Sullivan to visit China as US elections loom
Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security advisor, will visit China next week in a new bid to manage tensions months before US elections, the White House said Friday.
Sullivan will travel to Beijing from August 27 to 29 in the first visit by a US national security advisor to China since 2016, although other senior officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken have visited over the past two years.
The visit comes months ahead of US elections in November. The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, would be expected, if she wins, to continue Biden's approach of seeking dialogue with China while also maintaining pressure.
Her Republican rival Donald Trump has vowed, at least rhetorically, to take a harder line, with some of his aides seeing a far-reaching global showdown with China.
A senior US official told reporters that the Biden administration's engagement with China did not indicate any softening of approach and that it continued to believe that "this is an intensely competitive relationship."
"We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances, and taking the common steps on tech and national security that we need to take," the official said, referring to sweeping restrictions on US technology transfers to China imposed under Biden.
"We are committed to managing this competition responsibly, however, and preventing it from veering into conflict," she added, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
A key area of friction has been Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy which Beijing considers its territory and has not ruled out "reuniting" through force.
China has kept up its saber-rattling since the inauguration this year of President Lai Ching-te, whose party emphasizes Taiwan's separate identity.
"We're going to raise concern about the PRC's increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure in Taiwan," the administration official said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
"These activities are destabilizing, risk escalation, and we're going to continue to urge Beijing to engage in meaningful dialogue with Taipei," she said.
The official said Sullivan would also discuss the South China Sea, where tension has been rising between China and US ally the Philippines.
- Key role -
The official did not indicate that the United States expected breakthroughs on the trip, in which Sullivan will meet with China's foreign policy supremo Wang Yi.
The official said Sullivan will reiterate US concerns about China's support for Russia in its major expansion of its defense industry since the Ukraine invasion. Beijing counters that, unlike the United States, it does not directly give weapons to either side.
China has historically been eager to work with US national security advisors, seeing them as decision-makers close to the president who can negotiate away from the media spotlight that comes with the secretary of state or top leadership.
The modern US-China relationship was launched when Henry Kissinger, then national security advisor to Richard Nixon, secretly visited Beijing in 1971 to lay the groundwork for normalization of relations with the communist state.
Sullivan and Wang have met four times over the last year and a half -- once in Washington and the other times in Vienna, Malta and Bangkok -- as well as alongside Biden and President Xi Jinping at their November summit in California.
The meetings between Wang and Sullivan were sometimes announced only after they were finished and the two had spent long hours together behind closed doors.
Sullivan will also speak to Wang about North Korea and the Middle East. China has criticized US support for Israel, and the United States has sought to call Beijing's bluff by urging it to use its relations to rein in Iran.
L.Davis--AMWN