‘Impossible to include China’: Beijing’s high diplomat tells Henry Kissinger

By Agence France-Presse: Beijing’s high diplomat Wang Yi informed Henry Kissinger on Wednesday that it’s “impossible to contain or encircle” China, hailing the previous US secretary of state’s position in opening up relations between the 2 powers.

“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 informed the 100-year-old Kissinger in a gathering in Beijing, in line with a overseas ministry assertion.

Kissinger, then US nationwide safety adviser, secretly flew to Beijing in July 1971 on a mission to determine relations with communist China.

That journey set the stage for a landmark go to by president Richard Nixon, who sought each to shake up the Cold War and enlist assist ending the Vietnam War.

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Washington’s overtures to an remoted Beijing contributed to China’s rise to grow to be a producing powerhouse and the world’s largest economic system after the US.

Since leaving workplace, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kissinger has grown rich advising companies in China — and has warned towards a hawkish flip in US coverage.

Hailing China’s “friendship established with old friends”, Wang on Wednesday praised Kissinger’s “historic contributions to the ice-breaking development of China-US relations”.

“China’s policy towards the US 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 US, two big countries, to get along with each other,” China’s high diplomat mentioned.

“The US policy toward China needs Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom and Nixon-style political courage,” he added.

Kissinger met Tuesday in Beijing with Defence Minister Li Shangfu as a part of a shock go to to China.

“Kissinger said in today’s world, challenges and opportunities coexist, and both the US and China should eliminate misunderstandings, coexist peacefully, and avoid confrontation,” state information company Xinhua reported.

“He expressed the hope that both sides will exert wisdom, make every effort to create positive outcomes for the development of bilateral relations, and safeguard world peace and stability,” it added.

The elder statesman’s journey to China coincided with that of US local weather envoy John Kerry, and adopted latest visits by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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