China prepared to debate ‘appropriate method’ to repair stalled ties with US: President Xi tells Kissinger

By Press Trust of India: President Xi Jinping on Thursday informed Henry Kissinger that China is able to focus on the “correct way” to halt the slide of its relations with the US and sought the assistance of veteran American diplomat to repair the ties as he did 50 years in the past by establishing diplomatic ties between the 2 nations.

Kissinger, the previous US Secretary of State, who turned 100 in May this yr, remained probably the most influential determine in Beijing since his profitable ping-pong diplomacy in 1971 pitting Communist China towards its ideological mentor the then Soviet Union tilting the Cold War stability of energy at the moment.

Successive Chinese Communist Party leaders turned to him for steering on the trajectory of China’s ties with the US which helped Beijing to increase its financial and diplomatic clout on the earth, till within the final 10 years when the American leaders started figuring out China as a significant risk because it emerged because the world’s second-largest financial system and main army energy subsequent solely to the US.

The ties hit all-time low with powerful anti-China insurance policies perused by each Donald Trump and the present Joe Biden Presidencies with a number of commerce and tech bans moreover the formation of influential strategic groupings like Quad, consisting of the US, India, Japan, Australia, and AUKUS comprising Australia, US and UK, which China says are aimed toward containing its rise.

Kissinger’s present go to to Beijing comes after the journeys by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this month moreover Washington’s prime local weather envoy John Kerry’s tour to recalibrate the stalled relations.

Xi, who in stark distinction prevented assembly with the visiting US officers, nevertheless, drove to the opulent Diaoyutai state visitor home in Beijing to satisfy Kissinger and sought his assist to restore the China-US ties.

Villa Five of the Diaoyutai visitor home the place Xi met Kissinger was the place the centenarian met the Chinese leaders throughout his first go to to Beijing in 1971 to determine ties with China underneath Richard Nixon’s Presidency.

Fifty-two years in the past, at an important turning level in China-US relations, Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai, President Richard Nixon and Kissinger, with exceptional strategic imaginative and prescient, made the fitting selection to hunt cooperation between China and the United States, kicking off the method of normalization of bilateral relations, Xi mentioned in his assembly with the centenarian who officers say is on a “private trip”.

“This has not only benefited the two countries but also changed the world”, Xi said.

Looking into the future, China and the US have every reason to complement each other’s success and achieve common prosperity, and the key is to follow the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, Xi was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

“On this foundation, China is able to focus on with the United States the right method for the 2 nations to get alongside and promote the regular improvement of bilateral ties. This will profit the 2 sides and the entire world,” Xi said, expressing the hope that Kissinger and other leaders in Washington will continue to play a constructive role in bringing China-US relations back on the right track.

Ahead of Xi’s meeting with Kissinger, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Chinese Defence Minister Gen. Li Shangfu, who is barred from visiting the US, also met him.

Gen. Li was sanctioned under Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) over China’s purchase of 10 SU-35 combat aircraft in 2017 and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment in 2018 when he headed the Equipment Development Department of the Chinese military.

Wang said Kissinger’s historic contributions to the ice-breaking development of China-US relations in 1971 played an irreplaceable role in enhancing mutual understanding between the two countries. “China cherishes its friendship with outdated associates.”

He additionally informed Kissinger that China’s improvement has robust inner dynamics and inevitable historic logic and it’s unimaginable to attempt to remodel China, and it’s much more unimaginable to comprise China and reiterated Beijing’s claims over the self-ruled Taiwan island.

The US ought to cease its backing for Taiwan separatists headed by its present President Tsai-Ing-wen, he mentioned.

When requested about Kissinger’s go to to Beijing on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller mentioned he didn’t symbolize the US authorities. He added that Beijing knowledgeable Blinken of Kissinger’s plans throughout his personal journey to China final month, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The Chinese international ministry in its response to Kissinger’s go to mentioned that though he was not in public workplace, he cared about US-China ties and supported current efforts to enhance relations.