Susan Thornton Says Trump-Xi Summits Are Only Guardrail in US-China Ties

Susan Thornton on US-China ties, post-midterms and averting a new balloon crisis

Susan Thornton said the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was necessary.

“Leader-level meetings are the only guardrail we really have in US-China relations right now,” she said.

She added that it was “very important” that such meetings happen.

Leader-level contact as a safeguard

Thornton’s assessment comes as US-China relations face what has been described as “fragile stability”.

AI dialogue and security issues are among the most difficult points in the bilateral relationship, according to the description of her remarks.

Her emphasis was on keeping communication open between China and the United States.

The importance she assigns to leader-level contact rests on its role as the only guardrail currently available in the relationship, rather than on any broader claim about the summit’s outcome.

That makes the meeting itself the central development in her assessment: contact between the two leaders must continue because it is the principal safeguard identified in the current US-China relationship.

Thornton’s diplomatic background

Thornton is a former American diplomat who worked for decades on US policy in Eurasia at the State Department.

During the first Trump presidency, she became acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

She is the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

She is also a senior fellow at the Paul Tsai China Centre, Yale Law School.

Thornton spoke to Orange Wang about maintaining communication between China and the United States.

Her comments were part of the Open Questions interview series.

Source: South China Morning Post