As Trump returns to White House, Biden’s security adviser says China remains a top US priority

After Joe Biden and Donald Trump discuss transition, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says competition with Beijing is ‘paramount’

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US President Biden meets president-elect Trump at the White House

Khushboo Razdanin Washington

Published: 1:18am, 14 Nov 2024Updated: 3:10pm, 14 Nov 2024

Competition with China should be the top priority for the next US administration, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said on Wednesday, shortly after president-elect Donald Trump met with Biden at the White House for transition talks.

“If you look out at a strategic level, the competition with the People’s Republic of China is going to be defining for what the world looks like over the course of the next 10, 20 and 30 years. And so that has got to be a paramount priority for the incoming administration,” Jake Sullivan said at a White House briefing.

So far, Trump’s cabinet picks for security and diplomacy roles – including Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Representative Mike Waltz as national security adviser – “are people who have very much focused on that challenge”, Sullivan said, adding that he looked forward to “talking to them about how we’ve approached it, and obviously pass on the current state of play”.

With Democrats in the minority in both chambers of the incoming Congress, Sullivan emphasised that a “bipartisan foundation” for US foreign policy would be critical to “succeed in the long-term competition” with China.

Biden is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday during the Apec summit in Lima, Peru, and Sullivan acknowledged that “transitions are uniquely consequential moments in geopolitics”.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan during his briefing at the White House on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

“There are time when competitors and adversaries can see possibly opportunity, because you have this change in government here. And so part of what President Biden will communicate is that we need to maintain stability, clarity, predictability through this transition between the United States and China,” Sullivan said.