Xi hosts surprise meeting with White House national security adviser in Beijing

Xi Jinping has spoken with the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in a surprise meeting during the senior Joe Biden aide's three-day visit to Beijing.

- Helen Davidson

The meeting yesterday afternoon came after several days of talks between Sullivan and senior Communist party officials including the foreign minister, Wang Yi, and a vice-chair of the central military commission believed to have the ear of Xi.

It was Sullivan's first visit to Beijing as national security adviser, amid efforts to ease tensions in what US officials described as an "intensely competitive relationship".

According to Chinese state media, Xi told Sullivan in the Great Hall of the People that he hoped the US could see China's development in a positive light and would work with China "to find a right way for two major countries to get along with each other".

Xi was quoted as saying: "As two major countries, China and the United States should be responsible for history, for the people and for the world, and should be a source of stability for world peace and a propeller for common development."