Will US and China be able to lower risks before the new president takes office?

The United States and China are expected to try to build on last week’s visit by senior White House aide Jake Sullivan to reduce tensions but analysts warn they will have limited room for manoeuvre if they want to ensure a degree of stability before President Joe Biden steps down in January

Sullivan’s trip, the first by a US national security adviser in eight years, may lay the groundwork for a meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, and the two leaders have already agreed to talk by phone in the coming weeks.

Any meeting – which could take place at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) or Group of 20 summits – would take place after the US presidential election in November. Beijing is likely to be extremely cautious in the run-up to the vote, especially given the possibility of a Donald Trump victory.

Observers also warned that even if a face-to-face meeting, or a trip to China by Biden, provided the opportunity to clarify their positions before the new president took over, it was not certain that it could make a clear difference to the relationship between the two countries.

Li Cheng, a professor of political science at the University of Hong Kong, said both Xi and Biden were keen to “make sure US-China relations are stabilised at this critical moment. They do not want to change the direction.”

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