Kissinger warns Biden on China ties
China needs to prepare for ‘ sudden changes’ in bilateral relations
The Joe Biden administration has been testing China’s bottom line on bilateral relations and the Chinese mainland’s staunch determination to reunify with Taiwan island with more frequent maritime provocations and US politicians’ interactions with the Taiwan authorities, Chinese observers said Wednesday. They said that the consequences for the Biden administration would be fatal and unbearable if it continues on this path.
With the Democratic Party facing great headwinds in the midterm elections amid Biden’s new low public approval rate, Chinese observers warned that the Biden administration would enhance provocations against China, and that China needs to prepare for sudden changes in the bilateral relations that might happen overnight, and that incidents even worse than the 2001 midair collision involving a US plane and a Chinese fighter jet near Hainan Province might occur.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, Kissinger said geopolitics today requires “Nixonian flexibility” to help defuse conflicts between the US and China as well as between Russia and the rest of Europe, and Biden should be wary of letting domestic politics interfere with “the importance of understanding the permanence of China.”
The same day as Kissinger gave out his warning, the USS Benfold made a transit of the Taiwan Straits, the third provocative maritime activity by the warship near China in just one week, with analysts believing it is rare that a US warship would consecutively sail into waters off the Xisha Islands, Nansha Islands and then through the Taiwan Straits.
US politicians have also tried creating tensions across the Taiwan Straits as media revealed that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan in August.
Lü Xiang, an expert on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the US made increased provocations recently because it is testing China’s bottom line on the Taiwan question as they may have doubts about China’s strong determination of achieving national reunification.
“Kissinger’s core message is that the great powers have to find a way to coexist, and endless confrontations would only disrupt the entire international order established after WWII,” he said. “Kissinger’s warning to Biden was that he could see the possible fatal consequences.”
The sense of crisis and vulnerability of the US government have somewhat resulted in its current basic diplomatic pattern of flexing its muscles whenever and wherever it can to hide its old and fragile image, Lü said.