Praise the Messenger of Peace-Kissinger

LI, JIN WEI

November 30, 2019

When it comes to Dr. Henry Kissinger, everyone is no stranger, especially the elderly. He was the 56th Secretary of State of the United States during the Richard Nixon administration and Gerald Ford from September 22, 1973 to January 20, 1977.

Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923. On September 7 and September 21 this year, he was invited by Chinese leaders to visit Beijing twice at the age of 96 years old.

Xinhua News Agency reported this:

1. President Xi Jinping met with former US Secretary of State Kissinger at the Great Hall of the People on the 22nd. Xi Jinping praised Dr. Kissinger for his sincere feelings and active efforts in promoting the development of relations between China and the United States over the years, and said that his important contributions will be recorded in the annals of history. I hope he will live a long and healthy life and continue to be a promoter and contributor to Sino-US relations. Xi Jinping pointed out that with a profound historical vision and a profound understanding of traditional Chinese culture, the Ph.D. worked with the then leaders of the two countries to promote the normalization of relations between the two countries with different national conditions. This pioneering work is still in force today. It has an important impact on China, the United States and the world.

The current Sino-US relationship is at a critical juncture, facing some difficulties and challenges. Traditional Chinese culture pays attention to harmony but difference, and emphasizes the outline and the list. China and the United States should strengthen communication on strategic issues, avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments, and enhance mutual understanding. Both sides should proceed from the fundamental interests of the two peoples and the people of the world, respect each other, seek common ground while shelving differences, cooperate for a win-win situation, and promote the development of Sino-US relations in the right direction.

Kissinger said that I am honored to have visited China nearly 100 times in the past 50 years and witnessed the earth-shaking changes in China. Over the past 50 years, US-China relations have experienced ups and downs, but the general direction has always been forward. Now that the background of the times has changed, the importance of US-China relations has become more prominent. The two sides should strengthen strategic communication, strive to find a proper solution to their differences, and continue to carry out exchanges and cooperation in various fields. This is of vital importance to both countries and the world. Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi attended the meeting.

2. Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan will meet with visiting former US Secretary of State Kissinger in Beijing on November 23. Xinhua News Agency reported that Wang Qishan told this "old friend of the Chinese people" that Sino-US relations have a global impact. The two sides have more in common than differences. Cooperation will benefit both parties, and struggle will hurt both. Cooperation is the only correct choice for both parties. . Wang Qishan said that China and the United States should "maintain strength, overcome difficulties, meet challenges, and jointly advance Sino-US relations based on coordination, cooperation, and stability."

3. Kissinger: Solving problems through cooperation is the common responsibility of China and the United States for world peace and progress

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 7th (Reporters Han Jie, Cheng Xin) Former US Secretary of State Kissinger sent a video speech for the China Development High-level Forum 2019 Symposium that closed in Beijing on the same day, saying that he always believes in a cooperative approach. The problem is the shared responsibility of China and the United States for world peace and progress.

Kissinger said that China and the United States are the countries most capable of influencing world progress and peace in terms of technology, political experience, and history. Due to the different histories and cultures of the two countries, the cooperation between the two sides faces great challenges.

"I have the honor to witness the 40 years of Sino-US relations, and I always firmly believe that it is the common responsibility of China and the United States for world peace and progress to resolve important issues between the two sides through cooperation." Kissinger said.

The 2019 China Development Forum, under the guidance of the Development Research Center of the State Council and sponsored by the China Development Research Foundation, was held in Beijing from the 6th to the 7th. Chinese and foreign politicians, scholars and business people focused on "Trade, Openness and Shared Prosperity." The theme focuses on discussions on hot topics such as Sino-US economic and trade relations, demonstrating China's determination and actions to promote a higher level of opening up, and promote the realization of the sharing of economic growth results by all parties.

Kissinger background

Henry Alfred Kissinger (English: Henry Alfred Kissinger), whose real name is Heinz Alfred Kissinger (German: HeinzAlfred Kissinger), May 27, 1923 -), Kissinger Born in a Jewish family in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany, his father was a teacher of history and geography in a female Gymnasium (Helene Lange Gymnasium (Fürth)). In 1938, in order to escape Adolf Hitler's persecution, his family moved to New York City. Kissinger was naturalized and became an American citizen on June 19, 1943.

Although he spent his middle school years in Washington Heights, north of Manhattan, he still retains a prominent German accent. Kissinger went to school at George Washington High School in the evening, and worked in a shaving brush factory during the day. After graduating from high school, while working in the factory, he spent his free time studying at the School of Management and Administration of the City College of New York while working in the factory. In 1943, when he was studying at the City College of New York, he was enlisted to join the Army and served as a German translator for the 970th Counterintelligence Corps. He was dispatched to the European battlefield as a non-commissioned officer in the espionage force and belonged to the Strategic Intelligence Agency. In the army, his superior insight was appreciated, and he became an instructor of the NATO spy school. This also paved the way for him to set up an espionage committee under the National Security Council during the Vietnam War.

After returning to China and demobilized in 1946, he entered Harvard University to study and obtained a bachelor's degree in political science with first class honors in 1950. He received his Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University in 1952 and 1954, respectively. His 19th-century study on the history of European diplomacy, entitled "A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace 1812-22 (A WorldRestored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace 1812-22.)", It is often said to be the longest one of the Harvard doctoral dissertations (published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, which is 365 pages long). The main point of the thesis is that after the Vienna Peace Treaty in 1809, the European coordinated international order for the next century of peace is mainly due to Metternich and Cassuri did not take too much revenge against the defeated Napoleon France, but paid more attention to the power under the international system. Balance (balance of power). Kissinger was under the tutelage of William Youngdel Eliot at Harvard. His teacher is a well-known American historian who has served as an adviser on political and historical issues for six American presidents. Under the care of the teacher and the favorable conditions of the college, he attended many post-war seminars on the international situation and accumulated contacts in Washington to enter politics. Among them, it is worth mentioning that the future Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone (who has just passed away) I met him at this moment. After graduating from his Ph.D., Kissinger began teaching in the Department of Political Science, and through his participation in the Council of Foreign Affairs organized by the US government, he put forward positive suggestions for contemporary foreign policy. As an enlightened Republican eager to have a greater influence on American foreign policy, Kissinger became a supporter and adviser to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who fought to become the Republican Party in 1960, 1964, and 1968. Presidential nominee. In 1968, when it became clear that Nixon would be the Republican presidential nominee, Kissinger served as Nixon's adviser. After Nixon was elected, he became a member of the National Security Council and an adviser to the President. At that time, Nixon's nomination was even ahead of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. It is believed that Nixon had great expectations for it.

As a former senior U.S. diplomat and Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho, Kissinger was the winner of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, the former U.S. National Security Advisor, and later served as Secretary of State of the Nixon Administration and continued to serve in the Ford administration after the Watergate Incident. Job. As a supporter of real politics, Kissinger played a central role in American foreign policy from 1969 to 1977. During this period, he advocated a detente policy, which eased the tense relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, and played a vital role in the talks with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972, which contributed to China’s opening up and new developments. The formation of a strategic anti-Soviet Sino-US alliance.

Kissinger is recognized as a master of balance of power theory in international politics. His theory focuses on how to use national diplomacy to establish political alliances against the pressure of the Soviet Union in the international environment of confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union; that is, the United States is at a disadvantage. Under the circumstances, various forces are united to contain the strong state of the Soviet Union, so as to achieve a relative balance between the two polar forces. Kissinger's theory laid the foundation for the West's final victory in the Cold War, and was later widely used in national diplomatic activities as the source of theories of the country's foreign relations; it is typically manifested in the foreign policies of US Presidents Nixon and Reagan.

Secret visit to China to ease relations with the Soviet Union and establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States

Kissinger visited China on December 1, 1975, shaking hands with Mao Zedong

While serving as Nixon’s National Security Affairs Assistant, Kissinger formulated a easing policy for the Soviet Union in an effort to ease the tension between the two superpowers. He participated in the negotiations on the restriction of strategic weapons, and in 1973 reached the "Phase I Treaty on the Restriction of Strategic Arms" and the "SALT I Treaty" with Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

In order to continue to exert diplomatic pressure on the Soviet Union, in July and October 1971, Kissinger secretly visited mainland China twice, negotiated with the then Premier of the State Council Zhou Enlai, and was responsible for the US government's China policy. This paved the way for the China-U.S. summit on Nixon’s ice-breaking journey in 1972 and laid the cornerstone for the normalization of Sino-U.S. relations. It ended the 23-year US-China hostility and estrangement between China and the United States since the founding of New China. Completed a strategic foreign policy change. Kissinger also met with Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. To this day, Kissinger is often called "the old friend of the Chinese people" by Chinese leaders, and he has friendships with many Chinese leaders. Kissinger’s diplomacy had a great impact on the economic and cultural aspects of both countries. In 1979, the United States gave up recognition of Taiwan’s "Republic of China" and officially established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. The famous "Shanghai Communique" was born.

Kissinger and social influence

Kissinger’s foreign policy record has caused him to be controversial by leftists. The British journalist Christopher Siggins accused him of “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against humanity” in his book Kissinger’s Trial. Crimes are against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to murder, kidnapping and torture". In April 2013, WikiLeaks exposed 1.7 million secret American documents of the Kissinger era, exposing scandals behind Kissinger's manipulation by the American death squad, secret bombing wars, and assassinations.

At the hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee under the Trump administration in 2018, the 95-year-old Kissinger once again emphasized that China’s rise is a policy and historical inevitability. Both China and the United States need to examine the balance of power, regardless of the cost. Preventing direct confrontation between great powers is the bottom line of the world's operation. A world where two powers confront each other will not benefit mankind but the whole world will lose.

Kissinger's peace mission and concerns

Former U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger, who has contributed to the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, issued a warning in Beijing on November 21, 2019 that the U.S.-China trade war may involve the two giants in the Pacific into a real war.

This 96-year-old veteran politician and American diplomatic leader in the Nixon era has always been regarded as the planner and craftsman of the historic icebreaker between China and the United States in the 1970s.

Kissinger made the above statement at the Bloomberg Innovation Economy Forum held in Beijing. Kissinger was very worried at the meeting about the trade confrontation between the two major powers of the United States and China since last year. This trade war has caused a sharp rise in customs tariffs.

Kissinger said that if this conflict is allowed to continue in this way, the end result may prove to be worse than what happened in Europe in the 20th century.

Kissinger warned that the First World War broke out after a relatively minor economic crisis broke out, but today, the weapons they each have are enormous.

Kissinger said, “China is an economic power, and so are we, so we inevitably collide around the world.” Kissinger said that during the Cold War, the primary task of the United States and the Soviet Union was to negotiate a reduction in the nuclear force between the two countries. The conflict between China has always been "passive," and there is still no framework to treat Beijing as a'military power'. He believes that if the United States and China treat every issue in the world as a conflict between each other, it may be dangerous for mankind. Kissinger did not explain the underlying reasons for the confrontation between the United States and China. In the eyes of many observers, through the trade war, the confrontation between the United States and China is actually a confrontation of values. There is a consensus in the U.S. political circles that this confrontation of values is very important. Difficult to reconcile.

The confrontation surrounding the South China Sea and Taiwan is considered to be the most prone to military conflict. Whenever the situation in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea is tense, the United States will clamp down on China in the name of safeguarding the freedom of international navigation. The current situation is not only the United States. In order to demonstrate the freedom of navigation, Britain, Canada, Australia and even Germany have sent warships into this sensitive area.

On the same day of Kissinger's latest visit to China on November 21, 2019, the US military announced that two US warships had crossed the South China Sea at two different times. This is the most tense moment of Sino-US relations. Not only is the Sino-US trade war invisible, the Hong Kong crisis and the Taiwan election have made US-China relations antagonistic. The US Congress has just passed the "Hong Kong Democracy and Human Rights Act". Trump has also signed and promulgated on Thanksgiving Day a law that has become effective in the United States but has been extended beyond the extension. Its meaning is: "The United States will review the special tariff status granted to Hong Kong every year. The main point of the review is to prove whether Hong Kong has implemented it. True self-government, and any officials including Beijing and Hong Kong who harm Hong Kong’s democracy and human rights can be sanctioned by the US based on this law.

Just after the bill passed by the US Senate, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed resistance, describing it as "a piece of waste paper." After the US President signed it into law, on November 28, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng urgently summoned the US Embassy. BGI also expressed strong protest and warned the US government to bear all the consequences arising therefrom.

Working for peace is the highest mission

Kissinger may not be alarmist. There is no winner in the US-China conflict and will only lead to catastrophic consequences. However, it cannot be ignored that since the first time he went to China on a secret mission, the Chinese leadership has always regarded him as an old friend for 50 years. . The reason is simple. Kissinger knows the world too well. He has visited China a hundred times and he also understands the styles of different Chinese leaders at different times. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has met Kissinger many times.

Kissinger also believes that in recent months, in addition to the trade confrontation, the United States and China are also confronting strategic plans, especially those involving Taiwan and the South China Sea. China has declared sovereignty over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Kissinger, despite his 96-year-old age, travels between the United States and China in lobbying. I think the main theme is for peaceful purposes. Therefore, as soon as he set foot on China, he warned of the current situation between China and the United States. Of course, Kissinger’s main tasks are first of all. Taking into account the interests of the American people, he is also very friendly to the Chinese people. Otherwise, it would be impossible to promote and normalize Sino-U.S. relations and establish diplomatic relations 40 years ago. At present, a century of great changes in the world is a battle and a gradual change. Choosing peace and working for peace are the highest missions of the Chinese and American authorities.