China keen to see who will be Trump’s next top security adviser

Beijing will be closely watching who will be the next White House national security adviser, with the resignation of Michael Flynn casting a shadow over bilateral ties, observers said on Tuesday.

Flynn, who resigned over his contacts with Russia, was the most senior official from US President Donald Trump’s team that Beijing had contact with before Trump spoke to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week for the first time after his inauguration, the analysts said.

During the phone call, Trump said Washington would honour the one-China policy, which recognises Taiwan as part of China.

The call came a week after Flynn spoke to State Councillor Yang Jiechi.

Zhu Feng, an US-China relations professor at Nanjing University, said Flynn was one of the most familiar faces in Trump’s team that Beijing had interacted with. “It is like a communication channel was cut off,” Zhu said. “That could have some impact on Sino-US relations because [Beijing] seemed to be just getting to know the new administration.”

Names on the shortlist to succeed Flynn include retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, chief of staff of the National Security Council who has been named by Trump to serve as acting national security adviser; Vice Admiral Robert Harward; and former CIA director David Petraeus, Bloomberg cited an unnamed White House official as saying.