The architect of Richard Nixon’s rapprochement with Beijing warned that China is here to stay
US President Joe Biden should demonstrate some “Nixonian flexibility” and treat China with patience, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told Bloomberg. The elder statesman said that while Washington should work to contain Beijing’s influence, this “It cannot be achieved through permanent confrontation.”
Speaking to Bloomberg in an interview published Wednesday, Kissinger argued that “Biden and previous administrations have been too influenced by the domestic aspects of China’s vision,” and in their haste to oppose Beijing’s growing power, wealth and influence, they have failed to understand “the permanence of China”.
As Secretary of State to President Richard Nixon, Kissinger advocated diplomatic engagement with Communist China to prevent it from siding with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Years of disclosure culminated in a visit by Nixon to Beijing in 1972, after which China opened its economy to the West, paving the way for the country’s rise to superpower status.
While Kissinger may have facilitated China’s rise to power, the Trump and Biden administrations have sought to counter this rise. Trump accused Beijing of unfair trade practices and imposed heavy tariffs on Chinese imports, while the military listed “the [China] challenge in the Indo-Pacific” as his number one priority, a ranking that remains unchanged under Biden.
Biden has also kept many of his predecessor’s tariffs and has formed the AUKUS security pact with the UK and Australia and the Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) deal with Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Both alliances, AUKUS, a formal security pact, and PBP, a more informal arrangement, aim to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Biden commented in May that the United States would intervene militarily if China invaded Taiwan. Whether deliberate or accidental, his statement broke with the White House’s ‘One China’ policy, a 1972 statement drafted by Kissinger’s State Department that acknowledges, but does not endorse, China’s sovereignty over the island.
Although Biden’s comments were downplayed by White House and State Department officials, they earned him a rebuke from Kissinger, who in an interview at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos said that “Taiwan cannot be the center of negotiations between China and the United States.”
“The Taiwan Problem Will Not Go Away” Kissinger continued. “As a direct issue of confrontation, it is bound to lead to a situation that can mutate in the military field, which is against the world interest and against the long-term interest of China and the United States.”
“Of course, it is important to avoid the hegemony of China or any other country.” Kissinger added in his comments to Bloomberg. However, he warned “That is not something that can be achieved with endless clashes.”
Hours before the interview was published, the USS Benfold, a US Navy destroyer, sailed through the Taiwan Strait, having passed Chinese-controlled islands in the Taiwan Sea last week. South China. Washington considers such trips “freedom of navigation operations”, while Beijing sees them as “provocations”.