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Hong Kong CNN –
With the death of Henry Kissinger on Wednesday, Beijing lost a diplomat whom Beijing had long viewed as a trusted friend. China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday recognized the former American secretary of state for his pivotal role as a “pioneer and architect of China-US relations.” in building bilateral relationships.
During a regular press conference, ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin paid tribute to the late statesman, saying: “The Chinese people will remember Dr. “To remember Kissinger’s sincere devotion and important contribution to Sino-American relations.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed his condolences to President Joe Biden, Wang added.
Kissinger’s death was also mourned on Chinese social media on Thursday, where his death became the top topic on the heavily moderated microblogging site Weibo with more than 400 million views.
“Farewell, old friend of the Chinese people,” read one top comment with thousands of likes.
“The person who started a period of history has finally become history,” another comment said.
03:37 – Source: CNN
Take a look back at the defining moments in Henry Kissinger’s career
Considered a highly influential but controversial figure in the United States and around the world, Kissinger is highly regarded in China for his role in laying the foundation for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington – a crucial and highly consequential step in the country’s resumption, the world.
In July 1971, Kissinger became the first high-ranking U.S. official to visit Communist China. His secret meeting with Chinese leaders paved the way for then-President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking trip the following year.
This visit in turn opened the door to normalization of relations between the world’s richest country and its most populous country in 1979.
“There is no more important diplomat of the 20th century than Henry Kissinger, especially in terms of U.S.-China relations, he left an indelible mark,” said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser on Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Think Tank in Washington.
Long after Kissinger left office, Beijing viewed the well-connected diplomat as a potential help in addressing increasingly hawkish views toward China in Washington. With relations strained in recent years, Chinese state-controlled media celebrated the former diplomat, apparently signaling their displeasure with the US government’s tougher stance.
In a statement on Thursday, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng said he was “deeply shocked and saddened” to learn of Kissinger’s death.
“History will remember what the centenarian contributed to China-US relations, and he will always remain alive in the hearts of the Chinese people as a most treasured old friend,” Xie said on social media X.
Chinese state media highlighted Kissinger’s friendship with China, noting that he visited the country more than 100 times over half a century. State broadcaster CCTV called him a “living fossil” who has witnessed the evolution of US-China relations.
Many state media outlets quoted a glowing quote from Kissinger’s 2011 interview with the official Xinhua news agency: “China is the country with which I have the longest and most intense contacts. China has become a very important part of my life. Chinese friends are of extraordinary importance to me,” the American diplomat was quoted as saying.
And even amid rising tensions—as recent U.S. administrations became increasingly concerned about China’s aggressive foreign policy and authoritarianism at home—Kissinger remained a strong advocate of positive engagement to avoid conflict.
Kissinger last traveled to China in July, as the Biden administration was busy dispatching Cabinet officials to the Chinese capital to restore broken communications ahead of a possible visit by Xi to the United States earlier this month.
Bilateral relations then sank to a new low following the fallout from an alleged Chinese spy balloon and a high-level US visit to Taiwan last summer.
During his surprise visit to Beijing, Kissinger was granted a meeting with Xi, who described him as an “old friend.” In doing so, he differed from US climate envoy John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who traveled there in the same month on separate trips and only met with their counterparts.
Kissinger also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who told him: “US policy toward China requires Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom and Nixon-style political courage.”
On that trip, Kissinger was touted in Chinese state media as an example of “old friend diplomacy,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, citing China’s practice of referencing international figures , who have contributed to positive and stable relations between their country and China.
“Chinese media has very clearly tried to paint the picture that ‘this is good diplomacy’ and Kissinger is forward-looking and has the good will to ease tensions between two countries – and other current diplomats are not like Kissinger,” Wu said and added Beijing did not in fact aim to be a “close friend” of the US in its own diplomacy.
“Kissinger, the Flying Tigers, they are all part of the history of the ‘golden model’ or ‘good old days’ of US-China relations that Xi Jinping wants to promote,” Wu said, referring to American pilots, who helped China fight Japan in World War II, which were recently discussed in state media coverage in the lead-up to Xi’s US visit.
But among some Chinese intellectuals there are “mixed feelings” about Kissinger’s legacy. Some said he only tried to promote peace with China and was unprincipled when it came to China’s political realities, Wu added.
Kissinger’s covert visit to China in 1971 as Nixon’s national security adviser was followed by more than two decades of hostility and almost no contact between the two countries.
That trip, during which he met Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, and a second visit that same year, paved the way for Nixon’s own groundbreaking trip the following February and the signing of the carefully worded Shanghai Communiqué in which both sides agreed to move toward normalization of relationships.
The tectonic shift in U.S.-China relations, formalized some eight years later, opened the door to full-scale economic engagement beginning in the early 1980s. It also shifted the balance of power in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union by deepening divisions between Moscow and Beijing, experts say.
But getting there was a big challenge.
“In the 1960s there were various voices in the United States that tacitly called for finding a path to normalization with China… but it took very careful and astute diplomacy to actually implement and get that process going,” Kennedy said at CSIS in Washington. This points to how both sides deal with important differences.
Fifty years later, Kissinger’s pragmatism and what experts describe as his efforts to set aside ideological differences for strategic purposes appear at odds with the recent evolution of U.S.-China relations.
While Biden and Xi met earlier this month to ease tensions, the friendly public gestures belied mistrust on both sides, as each side felt the other wanted to use or co-opt the current world order to their advantage.
“It is more difficult for the United States and China to find a pragmatic balance because domestic politics in both countries … have changed dramatically,” Kennedy said.
“It’s really hard to imagine today that we would persuade the United States and others to engage in such creative diplomacy with China … and (other) countries with which we have the greatest differences,” Kennedy added. “That’s what Kissinger accomplished.”