The White House is still rather cautious. As a breakthrough, they obviously didn't want to sell the matter. However, one day after the online summit of the presidents of America and China, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a virtual event organized by the Brookings Institution that Joe Biden and Xi Jinping had agreed to sound out nuclear disarmament talks. The two presidents had agreed that “talks on strategic stability” would be promoted. Sullivan pointed out that it was an attempt. The security advisor said that Biden had raised the need to discuss the issue - under the direction of the two presidents. This should be done by negotiating teams dealing with security, technology and diplomacy issues.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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Officially, Sullivan's arguments were not followed up in the White House. It was only later said that Xi had indicated that high-ranking representatives could be commissioned. Sullivan announced that there would be an intensive effort at several levels to ensure that guard rails exist for competition between the two states so that it does not turn into a conflict. The exact format of any discussions is still unclear. The Wall Street Journal reported, referring to a Chinese government official, that it is possible to first let experts who are not members of their governments hold talks. Both sides could approach such a format, as it were, in order to then check whether official government talks can be started.

China had previously rejected talks about its nuclear arsenal on the grounds that America and Russia would first have to disarm their much larger stocks. There was no comment from Beijing on Wednesday. The rapid expansion of the Chinese arsenal has made such talks more urgent. President Xi Jinping ordered the armed forces in March to "accelerate the establishment of an advanced strategic deterrent." The Trump administration had already spoken out in favor of a comprehensive arms limitation pact which makes no distinction between tactical and strategic nuclear weapons and which, in addition to America and Russia, should also be joined by China, since the People's Republic is viewed as the real challenge.

According to the Pentagon, China could quadruple the number of its nuclear warheads by 2030.

In the summer, according to Washington, the Chinese military tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic weapon that circled the earth.

Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, spoke of a "very worrying event".

Satellite images also show that China is building more than a hundred additional silos for ICBMs.

Facilitation for journalists agreed

All of this points to a departure from the previous Chinese policy of minimum nuclear deterrence. Defense expert and former Chinese foreign policy expert Zhao Tong of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank described Chinese rearmament in an article in the New York Times as "an attempt to force Washington to accept a relationship of mutual vulnerability."

Meanwhile, the State Department confirmed that Beijing and Washington had agreed to facilitate visas for journalists on both sides ahead of the video summit. According to the New York Times, the agreement also means that the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times can once again send correspondents to China. But it is unclear whether the same American employees of the three media who were expelled from China last year will be allowed to return. That affected more than a dozen journalists. It was a retaliatory measure after the Trump administration classified Chinese media in America as foreign representations because they are basically subject to the dictates of the state and the party. The move also resulted in de facto expulsions.The Chinese Foreign Ministry spoke on Wednesday of a "hard-won success".