Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi told Henry Kissinger on Wednesday July 19 that it is “impossible to contain or encircle” China, hailing the former US Secretary of State’s role in opening up relations between the two powers.
Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi told Henry Kissinger on Wednesday that it is “impossible to contain or encircle” China, hailing the former US Secretary of State’s role in opening up relations between the two powers.
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 president Richard Nixon, who sought both to shake up the Cold War and enlist help ending the Vietnam War.
Washington’s overtures to an 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, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kissinger has grown wealthy advising businesses on China, and has warned against a hawkish turn in US policy.
Kissinger met Tuesday in Beijing with Defense Minister Li Shangfu as part of a surprise visit to China.
The elder statesman’s trip to China coincides with that of US climate envoy John Kerry, and follows recent visits by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP