In this photo released by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, left, meets with Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi in Beijing, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China via AP)
Beijing: Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi told Henry Kissinger that it is “impossible to contain or encircle” China, hailing the former US secretary of state’s role in opening up relations between Washington and Beijing.
“China’s development has a strong endogenous momentum and inevitable historical logic, and it is impossible to try to transform China, and it is even more impossible to encircle and contain China,” Wang told the 100-year-old Kissinger in a meeting in Beijing, according to a foreign ministry statement yesterday.
While Washington said it was aware of the visit by Kissinger, to China, he was not acting on behalf of the US government.
Hailing China’s “friendship established with old friends”, Wang praised Kissinger’s “historic contributions to the ice-breaking development of China-US relations”.
“China’s policy towards the United States maintains a high degree of continuity, and follows the fundamental guidelines proposed by President Xi Jinping, which are mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation,” Wang added.
“These three guidelines are fundamental and long-term, and they are also the right way for China and the United States, two big countries, to get along with each other,” China’s top diplomat said.
“The US policy toward China needs Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom and Nixon-style political courage,” he added, referring to former US president Richard Nixon, who established diplomatic ties with Communist-run China.
Kissinger, then US national security adviser, secretly flew to Beijing in July 1971 on a mission to establish relations with communist China.
That trip set the stage for a landmark visit by Nixon who sought both to shake up the Cold War and enlist help ending the Vietnam War.
Washington opening to then-isolated Beijing contributed to China’s rise to become a manufacturing powerhouse and the world’s largest economy after the United States.
Since leaving office, Kissinger has grown wealthy advising businesses on China – and has warned against the hawkish turn in US policy.
On Tuesday, Kissinger met with China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu.
“The United States and China should eliminate misunderstandings, coexist peacefully and avoid confrontation,” Kissinger had told Li.
Senior US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have recently visited China with the aim of stabilising ties between the two superpowers. — Agencies
