Henry Kissinger warns against ‘endless confrontation’ with China

The former US secretary of state says recent administrations in Washington have been too influenced by domestic policies

Flexibility of Richard Nixon, who reopened US-China ties in the 1970s, needed in today’s geopolitics, the elder statesman said

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In a wide-ranging interview former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger compares six world leaders with those of today. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 1:53pm, 20 Jul 2022Updated: 3:17pm, 20 Jul 2022

Modern geopolitics requires “Nixonian flexibility” to help defuse conflicts between the United States and China, as well as Russia and the rest of Europe, according to former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

The man who helped re-establish US-China ties in the 1970s said President Joe Biden should be wary of letting domestic politics interfere with “the importance of understanding the permanence of China”.

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“Biden and previous administrations have been too much influenced by the domestic aspects of the view of China,” said Kissinger, 99, in an interview on Tuesday in New York with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait.

“It is, of course, important to prevent Chinese or any other country’s hegemony [but] that is not something that can be achieved by endless confrontations,” he said.

Kissinger has previously warned the increasingly adversarial relations between the US and China risk a global “catastrophe comparable to World War I”.

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’s China and visit Beijing in 1972 on a trip that became a historic turning point for both nations.

Henry Kissinger warns against ‘endless confrontation’ with China

The former US secretary of state says recent administrations in Washington have been too influenced by domestic policies Flexibility of Richard Nixon, who reopened US-China ties in the 1970s, needed in today’s geopolitics, the elder statesman said

The former US secretary of state says recent administrations in Washington have been too influenced by domestic policies

Flexibility of Richard Nixon, who reopened US-China ties in the 1970s, needed in today’s geopolitics, the elder statesman said