U.S.-China talks fall short in nudging Beijing toward Red Sea breakthrough

Top U.S. and Chinese officials wrapped up two days of talks Saturday that focused on improving the superpowers’ relationship, though Washington appeared to have fallen short — at least for now — in getting Beijing to do more to pressure Iran to halt Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met for more than 12 hours over two days in Bangkok, a senior U.S. official told reporters, as the two rivals looked to build on an agreement reached between their leaders during a November summit in California to reopen lines of communication on a number of fronts and work together on common interests.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the two counties had agreed to work toward a phone call in the spring between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.