Amid a steep downturn in relations with the United States, China has looked to a meeting with former U.S. national security adviser and secretary of state Henry Kissinger to revive positive momentum.
The 100-year-old Kissinger met Wednesday in Beijing with the ruling Communist Party’s diplomat Wang Yi, who said it was “impossible” to transform, encircle or contain China, reiterating top Chinese leaders’ statements on what they say the U.S. is trying to do based on differences over trade, technology, Taiwan and China’s human rights record.
On Tuesday, Kissinger held talks with Defence Minister Li Shangfu, who is barred from visiting the U.S. over arms sales he oversaw with Russia.
China’s Defence Ministry quoted Li as praising the role Kissinger played in opening up China-U.S. relations in the early 1970s, but said bilateral ties had hit a low point because of “some people on the American side who are not willing to meet China halfway.”
Kissinger served as U.S. secretary of state and national security adviser in the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
He played a key diplomatic role in the normalization of relations between Washington and Beijing in the 1970s and has visited China regularly since leaving office.
Wang, referring to Kissinger as “an old friend,” commended the former U.S. diplomat for playing “an irreplaceable role” in enhancing mutual understanding between the two countries.
“U.S. policies toward China require Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom and Nixon-style political courage,” China’s Foreign Ministry quoted Wang as saying during the meeting.
Not an official visit on behalf of the U.S.
While Washington said it was aware of Kissinger’s visit to China, he was not acting on behalf of the U.S. government.
U.S. leaders say they have no such intentions, but seek only frank dialogue and fair competition in the economic sector. China broke off some mid- and high-level contacts with the Biden administration last August, including over climate issues, to show its anger with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.
China claims the island as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary, threatening to draw the U.S. into a major conflict in a region crucial to the global economy.
Contacts have only slowly been restored and China continues to refuse to restart dialogue between the People’s Liberation Army, the party’s military branch, and the U.S. Department of Defence.
Kissinger’s visit coincides with that of Biden’s top climate envoy, John Kerry, the third senior Biden administration official in recent weeks to travel to China for meetings with their counterparts following Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
The wave of U.S. diplomacy has yet to be reciprocated by China, which has its own list of concessions it wants from Washington. Serving U.S. officials, including Kerry, say they will not be offering any such deals to Beijing.
Kissinger still writes, gives speeches
Kissinger has remained active in recent years, making periodic speeches around the world and attending a series of events to commemorate his 100th birthday in late May.
Kissinger also coauthored a book about artificial intelligence in 2021 called The Age of AI: And Our Human Future. He has warned that governments should prepare for the potential risks associated with the technology.
During eight years as a national security adviser and secretary of state, Kissinger was involved in major foreign policy events, and in 1973 was jointly awarded, along with Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a ceasefire to help bring an end to the decade-long war in the Southeast Asian country.
Ford awarded Kissinger the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, saying Kissinger “wielded America’s great power with wisdom and compassion in the service of peace.”
But Kissinger, along with Nixon, was also criticized by American allies when North Vietnamese communist forces took Saigon in 1975 as the remaining U.S. personnel fled what is now known as Ho Chi Minh City.
Kissinger additionally was accused of orchestrating the expansion of the Vietnam conflict into Laos and Cambodia, enabling the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime that killed an estimated two million Cambodians.
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