{"id":6995,"date":"2023-07-18T15:55:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T15:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/?p=6995"},"modified":"2023-07-18T16:00:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T16:00:35","slug":"henry-kissinger-meets-chinas-defence-minister-in-surprise-visit-to-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/henry-kissinger-meets-chinas-defence-minister-in-surprise-visit-to-beijing\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry Kissinger meets China\u2019s defence minister in surprise visit to Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Amy Hawkins<br><br>The veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger has met China\u2019s defence minister in Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a readout on Tuesday from the Chinese defence ministry, Li Shangfu said \u201cfriendly communication\u201d between China and the US had been \u201cdestroyed\u201d because \u201csome people in the United States did not meet China halfway\u201d. Kissinger said he was a \u201cfriend of China\u201d, according to the readout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNeither the United States nor China can afford to treat the other as an adversary. If the two countries go to war, it will not lead to any meaningful results for the two peoples,\u201d the Chinese statement reported Kissinger as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The surprise visit of the 100-year-old former US secretary of state comes as John Kerry, the US climate envoy, is in Beijing to meet Chinese officials to discuss how the two countries can cooperate on confronting the climate crisis. Kerry is the latest in a string of senior US officials who have travelled to China this summer, after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/jun\/20\/xi-jinping-antony-blinken-us-china-meeting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">completed a long-awaited trip<\/a>&nbsp;in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Relations between the two superpowers have been spiralling downwards for months, but there is cautious optimism on both sides that the restarting of official dialogues can build a foundation for improved ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kissinger\u2019s visit, which had not been publicised, is outside the official roster of meetings. It is almost exactly 52 years since his secret visit to Beijing in July 1971, which paved the way for Richard Nixon, the US president at the time, to normalise relations between the US and China. More than half a century on, Kissinger is still seen by many in Beijing as a \u201cfriend of China\u201d. In May, state tabloid the Global Times praised Kissinger\u2019s \u201crazor-sharp\u201d mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kissinger has repeatedly warned of \u201ccatastrophic\u201d consequences of a conflict between the US and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Li has been the subject of US sanctions since 2018, relating to the purchase of combat aircraft from Russia\u2019s main arms exporter, which Beijing cites as a reason for refusing to reopen military-to-military dialogues with Washington. Last month, Li refused to meet his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>China\u2019s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to request for comment.<br><br>(Source: The Guardian)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amy HawkinsThe veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger has met China\u2019s defence minister in Beijing. According to a readout on Tuesday from the Chinese defence ministry, Li Shangfu said \u201cfriendly communication\u201d between China and the US had been \u201cdestroyed\u201d because \u201csome people in the United States did not meet China halfway\u201d. Kissinger said he was a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[219,183,218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-219","category-asian-issues","category-reports-and-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6999,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995\/revisions\/6999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}