Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat to hold back-channel talks

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US national security adviser Jake Sullivan will hold a private meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in the coming days, as the pair resume communications through a back channel that has been critical to stabilising relations.

Sullivan will meet Wang in Thailand for what will be their first such contact since President Joe Biden met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November, according to two people familiar with the plan.

US and Chinese officials last year restarted high-level engagements that were aimed at easing tensions over issues including Taiwan’s status and a suspected Chinese spy balloon that sent relations to their lowest ebb since the countries established diplomatic ties in 1979.

But in contrast to the meetings between US cabinet secretaries and their Chinese counterparts, which were announced in advance, Sullivan and Wang last year held two secret meetings — in Vienna and Malta — that were critical in paving the way for Biden and Xi to meet in November.

US officials said the Sullivan-Wang channel had been effective because the meetings occurred in private, without media attention.

The White House confirmed that the two would meet on Friday and Saturday, adding that it “continues the commitment by both sides at the November 2023 Woodside Summit between President Biden and President Xi to maintain strategic communication and responsibly manage the relationship”.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Friday also confirmed the meeting, saying Wang Yi would be in Thailand from Friday to Monday.

The upcoming meeting comes after Washington pressed Beijing to urge Tehran to rein in Yemen-based Houthi rebels. The Iran-backed group has been attacking ships in the Red Sea in recent months.

Sullivan recently raised the issue in Washington with Liu Jianchao, head of the Communist party’s…