China, US need a ‘Kissinger’ more than 50 years ago
► Keep difference, work on common ground: lesson from the secret visit
Exactly 50 years after former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger made a secret trip to China, unveiling a new era for China-US relations, Chinese observers believe the ties are at a historic junction again between full confrontation and peaceful coexistence where the need for a similar ice-breaking dialogue between the two is more urgent than 50 years ago.
They noted that with the US view of China moving from strategic fear to paranoia, the US, under the Biden administration, is unlikely to form a China policy as clear and mature as the one carried out by Kissinger, urging the US to deeply reflect on its profound problems and correct its mistakes.
Vice President Wang Qishan said at a conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kissinger’s secret trip to China that the US strategy toward China should avoid a vicious cycle of misleading and miscalculation. Wang said the US should recognize that its biggest challenge is not China, but itself.
On July 9, 1971, Kissinger made a secret trip to China. Fifty years later, amid growing difficulties of relations between the world’s two largest economies, the 98-year-old former US official called for maintaining the essence of this trip – the commitment of both sides to end conflicts by putting aside divergences
and seek dialogue.
Kissinger told the audience that the most important words from the US government then were acknowledging that the Chinese people considered the island of Taiwan as part of China, there was only but one China as a precondition that would not be challenged, though the question might require a long period for a final resolution. He called for dialogue similar to that between former US president Richard Nixon and Chairman Mao Zedong.
China values the historic incident that had profound impact on the global pattern. But the 50 years anniversary of Kissinger’s visit received little publicity and commemorations in the US.
Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Joe Biden was reluctant to show special respect to Kissinger due to interests of the two parties, and some US politicians may worry that high-profile commemorations of the incident may weaken the US’ position in China-US games.
Ice-breaking dialogue and cooperation between China and the US is more urgent than 50 years ago, Yang Xiyu, a former Chinese diplomat and senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Friday.
“China and the US realized a ‘handshake that crossed the vast Pacific Ocean’ 50 years ago when the two had not established diplomatic relations. Today, the two must be more capable of conducting similar substantive dialogue,” Yang said.
“The need for substantive dialogue between leaders of the two countries is even more urgent than fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, as current bilateral ties, which are at the lowest in decades, has seriously affected the joint effort of dealing with the pandemic and the US should be fully responsible for this,” Yang said.
He said that China-US relations are now at a historic crossroads, which the two either slide into confrontation, engage in a cold war and eventually a real war, or move toward peaceful coexistence.
To achieve a substantive dialogue, both China and the US have to innovate their diplomatic channels and build a new framework, Yang said, noting behind-the-scenes diplomacy like what Kissinger did 50 years ago can still work today.
The US is like an old man standing in a stadium, who wants to ace the game but is running out of breath, and the old man is very stubborn in changing his wrong mindset that the US would not get better if it did not suppress China, Lü said.
Since the Trump administration, the US’ view of China has gone from strategic fear to paranoia, and this state has not changed under Biden, Yang said.
In the meantime, the US is not fully prepared on how to view China as its policies and words often contradict each other.
Kurt Campbell, the White House Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, said that the US can co-exist peacefully with China and the US does not support Taiwan independence. Some media said Campbell’s remarks on the Taiwan question made him the first Biden administration official to set out the White House’s stance on the issue.