{"id":5090,"date":"2022-07-21T09:03:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T14:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whia.us\/?p=5090"},"modified":"2022-07-21T09:03:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T14:03:07","slug":"kissinger-warns-biden-against-endless-confrontation-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whia.us\/en\/5090\/","title":{"rendered":"Kissinger Warns Biden Against Endless Confrontation With China"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Courtney McBride- Bloomberg<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said geopolitics today requires \u201cNixonian flexibility\u201d to help defuse conflicts between the US and China as well as between Russia and the rest of Europe.<\/p>\n

While warning that China shouldn\u2019t become a global hegemon, the man who helped reestablish US-China ties in the 1970s said that President Joe Biden should be wary of letting domestic politics interfere with \u201cthe importance of understanding the permanence of China.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBiden and previous administrations have been too much influenced by the domestic aspects of the view of China,\u201d Kissinger, 99, said in an interview Tuesday in New York with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. \u201cIt is, of course, important to prevent Chinese or any other country\u2019s hegemony.\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u201cthat is not something that can be achieved by endless confrontations,\u201d he added in the interview produced by Intelligence Squared US and How To Academy. He\u2019s previously said the increasingly adversarial relations between the US and China risk a global \u201ccatastrophe comparable to World War I.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former President Richard Nixon campaigned in the 1960s as a vehement anti-Communist, yet surprised many of his supporters by deciding to engage Mao Zedong\u2019s China and visit Beijing in 1972 on a trip that became a historic turning point for both nations.<\/p>\n

Geopolitics and great-power relations are a central theme of Kissinger\u2019s new book, \u201cLeadership: Six Studies in World Strategy,\u201d that focuses on six key leaders: Germany\u2019s Konrad Adenauer, France\u2019s Charles de Gaulle, Nixon, Egypt\u2019s Anwar Sadat, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Singapore\u2019s influential first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.<\/p>\n

In his near-century of life, Kissinger has known all six of the leaders whose examples he cites, and through his advisory firm he continues to be a sought-out voice on global affairs from Beijing to Washington.<\/p>\n

Reviewing the performance of today\u2019s European leaders from France\u2019s Emmanuel Macron to Germany\u2019s Olaf Scholz, Kissinger said it made him sad that current \u201cEuropean leadership does not have the sense of direction and mission\u201d that previous heads of state, such as Adenauer and de Gaulle, brought to their roles.<\/p>\n

On Europe\u2019s biggest crisis — Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine — Kissinger said comments he made earlier this year about the starting point for a negotiated end to the war have been misreported. Saying he thinks the timing for talks is getting closer, he said discussions about Crimea\u2019s future should be left for negotiations, not determined before the conflict is paused. Crimea was Ukraine\u2019s territory before Russia seized it in 2014.<\/p>\n

And on the turmoil of Brexit, Kissinger said de Gaulle\u2019s view — that Great Britain \u201cwould never be a wholehearted member of the European community\u201d — has proven justified.<\/p>\n

Asked how the leaders portrayed in his book would fare in today\u2019s world, Kissinger said Singapore\u2019s Lee would be the best of the six to serve as US president, if such a thing were possible, and also the best at dealing with the long-term challenge of climate change.<\/p>\n

Pressed on who would be the strongest negotiator with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kissinger opted for France\u2019s de Gaulle, then added \u201cNixon would be quite good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nixon was \u201ca very good foreign-policy president. He destroyed himself domestically,\u201d Kissinger said.<\/p>\n

On a less weighty issue, Kissinger said Thatcher, the British \u201cIron Lady\u201d who faced down labor unions at home and Argentina\u2019s dictatorship abroad while becoming her nation\u2019s longest serving prime minister of the 20th century, would be his pick for most interesting dinner companion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrave man,\u201d responded Micklethwait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nixon\u2019s top diplomat, now 99, talks about US-China ties now, says European leaders have lost continent\u2019s sense of direction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[142,199,128],"tags":[213,582,462,620,145],"series":[1027],"coauthors":[238],"class_list":["post-5090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-most-important-topics-en","category-top-stories","category-updates-en","tag-china","tag-henry-kissinger","tag-president-biden","tag-president-nixon","tag-usa-en","series-whia-synergy"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/whia.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/henry-1-e1658412175594.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/whia.us\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/whia.us\/en\/feed\/podcast\/whia-synergy","embedCode":"

Kissinger Warns Biden Against Endless Confrontation With China<\/a><\/blockquote>