Chinese defense chief meets former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – China’s defense minister on Tuesday met in Beijing with Henry Kissinger, a senior statesman and former US secretary of state.

Gen. Li Shangfu Li, according to a Defense Ministry statement, told Kissinger, who turned 100 in May, that the world has pinned hopes on China and the US “shouldering the responsibilities… and jointly maintaining world prosperity and stability.”

“The path of peaceful development that China is pursuing is a blessing for the world, not a disaster for the world. The US should have a correct strategic judgment,” Li said.

However, Li voice dregret that “some people” in the US “cause Sino-US relations to hover at a low point.”

China has refused to resume high-level military communication with the US side, which were suspended last August in the wake of unannounced trip to Taiwan by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“The reality of interdependence between the two countries was ignored, the history of win-win cooperation was distorted, and the atmosphere of friendly communication was destroyed,” Li said.

For Chinese-US relations to progress, Li said Chinese President Xi Jinping had put forward “three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.”

This, Li added, was the “correct way for China and the US to get along with each other in the new era.”

For the healthy and stable development of relations, the Chinese defense chief said he hopes “the US side will work with China to implement the consensus” reached by Xi and his US counterpart Joe Biden in Indonesia last November during a bilateral summit on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.

Kissinger’s secret visit to Beijing over a half-century ago in 1971 paved the way for Richard Nixon, then-US president, to normalize relations with China.

Kissinger, an architect of realpolitik foreign policy, is praised in some quarters but lambasted in others for his policies ranging from Cyprus to Cambodia. He has warned of the consequences of a conflict between Beijing and Washington.