The death of Henry Kissinger on Wednesday saw the loss of a diplomat Beijing has long considered a trusted friend, with China\u2019s Foreign Ministry on Thursday hailing the former American secretary of state as \u201ca pioneer and architect of China-US relations\u201d for his central role in the establishment of bilateral ties. <\/p>\n
Paying tribute to the late statesman during a regular press briefing, ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said \u201cthe Chinese people will remember Dr. Kissinger\u2019s sincere devotion and important contributions to China-US relations.\u201d <\/p>\n
Chinese leader Xi Jinping had sent his condolences to President Joe Biden, Wang added. <\/p>\n
Kissinger\u2019s death was also mourned on Chinese social media Thursday, where his passing became the top trending topic on heavily moderated microblogging site Weibo with more than 400 million views. <\/p>\n
\u201cFarewell, old friend of the Chinese people,\u201d said a top comment with thousands of likes. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe person who started a period of history has finally become history,\u201d another comment said. <\/p>\n
Considered a highly influential but controversial figure in the United States and around the world, Kissinger is highly regarded in China for his role laying the groundwork for the formation of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington \u2013 a crucial and highly consequential step in the country\u2019s reengagement with the world. <\/p>\n
In July 1971, Kissinger became the first high-ranking US official to visit Communist China. His secret meeting with Chinese leaders paved the way for then President Richard Nixon\u2019s breakthrough trip the following year. <\/p>\n
That visit, in turn, opened the door for the normalization of ties between the world\u2019s richest country and its most populous in 1979. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no more important diplomat in the 20th century than Henry Kissinger, certainly with regard to US-China relations, he has left an indelible mark,\u201d said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington. <\/p>\n
Long after Kissinger left office, Beijing had regarded the well-connected diplomat as a potential helping hand in navigating the increasingly hawkish views towards China in Washington. Amid fraught relations in recent years, Chinese state-controlled media has celebrated former diplomat in an apparent signal of signal their displeasure with the tougher stance taken by US administrations. <\/p>\n
In a statement Thursday, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, said he was \u201cdeeply shocked and saddened\u201d to learn of Kissinger\u2019s passing. <\/p>\n
\u201cHistory will remember what the centenarian had contributed to China-US relations, and he will always remain alive in the hearts of the Chinese people as a most valued old friend,\u201d Xie said on social media X. <\/p>\n
Chinese state media highlighted Kissinger\u2019s friendship with China, noting that he visited the country more than 100 times over half a century. State broadcaster CCTV called him a \u201cliving fossil\u201d who witnessed the development of US-China relations. <\/p>\n
Many state-run outlets cited a glowing quote from Kissinger\u2019s interview with official news agency Xinhua in 2011. \u201cChina is the country with which I have the longest and most in-depth contacts. China has become a very important part of my life. Chinese friends are of extraordinary significance to me,\u201d the American diplomat was quoted as saying.\u00a0
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And even amid growing tensions \u2013 as recent US administrations have grown increasingly alarmed by China\u2019s aggressive foreign policy and authoritarianism at home \u2013\u2013 Kissinger remained a strong advocate of positive engagement to avoid conflict. <\/p>\n
Kissinger last traveled to China in July, when the Biden administration was busy dispatching cabinet officials to the Chinese capital in an attempt to restore fractured communications ahead of a potential visit to the US from Xi, which took place earlier this month. <\/p>\n
Bilateral relations had then plunged to a new low following the fallout from an alleged Chinese spy balloon and a high-level US visit to selfTaiwan last summer. <\/p>\n
On his surprise visit to Beijing, Kissinger was granted a meeting with Xi who hailed him as an \u201cold friend.\u201d That made him stand out from US climate envoy John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who traveled there on separate trips that same month and only met with their counterparts. <\/p>\n
Kissinger also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who told him \u201cUS policies toward China require Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom and Nixon-style political courage.\u201d <\/p>\n
On that trip, Kissinger was held up in Chinese state media as an example of \u201cold friends diplomacy,\u201d according to Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, referring to China\u2019s practice of pointing to international figures who have contributed to positive, stable relations between their country and China. <\/p>\n
\u201cChinese media very clearly tried to paint the picture that \u2018this is good diplomacy,\u2019 and Kissinger is forward-looking and has goodwill for mitigating the tensions between two countries \u2014 and other current diplomats are not like Kissinger,\u201d said Wu, adding that Beijing was, in reality, not aiming to be a \u201cclose friend\u201d of the US in its own diplomacy. <\/p>\n
\u201cKissinger, the Flying Tigers, all are part of the story of the US-China relations \u2018golden model\u2019 or \u2018good old days\u2019 that Xi Jinping wants to promote,\u201d Wu said, referring to American pilots who helped China fight Japan during World War II, who were recently highlighted in state media coverage ahead of Xi\u2019s US visit. <\/p>\n
But among some Chinese intellectuals there are \u201cmixed feelings\u201d about Kissinger\u2019s legacy, with some saying he only tried to promote peace with China, and didn\u2019t have principles when it came to China\u2019s political realities, Wu added. <\/p>\n
Kissinger\u2019s covert 1971 visit to China as Nixon\u2019s national security advisor followed more than two decades of hostility and almost no contact between the two countries. <\/p>\n
That trip, where he met Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, and a second visit that same year, paved the way for Nixon\u2019s own breakthrough trip the following February and the signing of the carefully worded Shanghai Communique, where both sides agreed to work toward normalizing relations. <\/p>\n
The tectonic shift in US-China relations that was formalized some eight years later opened the door for extensive economic engagement starting from the early 1980s. It also shifted the balance of power in the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, experts say, by deepening a split between Moscow and Beijing. <\/p>\n
But getting there was a significant challenge. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a variety of voices in the United States in the 1960s quietly calling for finding a path toward normalization with China \u2026 but it took very careful, wise diplomacy to actually implement and get that process rolling,\u201d said Kennedy at CSIS in Washington, pointing to both sides\u2019 management of key differences. <\/p>\n
Fifty years later, Kissinger\u2019s brand of pragmatism and what experts describe as his efforts to put aside ideological differences for strategic purposes appears at odds with the recent trajectory of the US-China relationship.\u00a0
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While Biden and\u00a0Xi met earlier this month to ease tensions, the friendly public gestures belied the mistrust on both sides, with each seeing the other as seeking to use or co-opt the current world order in their favor. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more difficult for the US and China to find a pragmatic balance because the domestic politics in both countries \u2026 (have) shifted dramatically,\u201d said Kennedy. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to think today that we would have the US and others engage in that kind of creative diplomacy with China \u2026 and (other) countries with which we have the biggest differences,\u201d Kennedy added. \u201cThat\u2019s what Kissinger was able to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
The death of Henry Kissinger on Wednesday saw the loss of a diplomat Beijing has long considered a trusted friend, with China\u2019s Foreign Ministry on Thursday hailing the former American secretary of state as \u201ca pioneer and architect of China-US relations\u201d for his central role in the establishment of bilateral ties. Paying tribute to the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}