The legacy of Henry Kissinger on China-US relationship

CGTN Europe

Robert Ross, Associate at John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies from Harvard University talked with CGTN Europe on Kissinger’s legacy for China-US ties.

Transcript

00:00 sustainable development.

00:01 Robert Ross is associate at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.

00:07 Well, Henry Kissinger brought to American foreign policy a global perspective on international

00:13 security and international strategy.

00:16 Whereas most practitioners might know the Middle East problem or know the Taiwan problem,

00:21 he understood the larger picture and the conflicts of interest for all countries rather than

00:26 simply driving American foreign policy.

00:28 So he could look at US-China relations, he could look at US-China-Soviet relations and

00:34 understand the strategic implications of the trends and then take advantage of them for

00:38 American security.

00:40 And that was the foundation of the opening to China and US-China detente, rapprochement,

00:45 and eventually the normalization of US-China relations.

00:50 Not everyone though will remember Kissinger warmly perhaps.

00:53 He was a divisive figure of course.

00:55 How do you think he'll be remembered?

00:57 Quite divisive.

00:58 His prominence creates a certain magnet for criticism.

01:03 And so he is criticized for his Chile policy, for his Cambodia policy, for his Pakistan

01:09 policy.

01:10 But I think in retrospect, the sins of Henry Kissinger are no worse than say the American

01:16 occupation of Iraq following the second Iraq war.

01:21 So it's a reflection of his prominence more than anything else.

01:25 One hopes history will be kinder to him and look at him in a larger historical perspective

01:30 than the contemporary perspective.

01:33 He's of course known for organizing that rapprochement between China and the US and he maintained

01:39 that close link with China throughout his life.

01:41 How will his death be being marked there?

01:45 Well of course he did bring to US-China relations a major breakthrough that eased the Cold War

01:50 burdens of both countries and essentially transformed the Cold War.

01:55 The United States went from having to battle two great powers to just one.

01:59 China went from battling two great powers to just one.

02:02 And the US-China cooperation posed a major challenge to Soviet foreign policy.

02:07 Going forward, one has to ask to what extent does that global perspective, that security

02:12 perspective influence contemporary US foreign policy and US policy toward China?

02:18 And one fears that since the Kissinger era and since the retirement of his disciples,

02:24 if you will, we see in the White House, we see in the State Department, problem solvers.

02:30 Do you understand the Middle East?

02:32 How do you solve that problem?

02:34 The Korea policy, what do you do?

02:36 And how do you promote American interests?

02:39 And the global perspective, the security perspective, the strategic perspective has been missing.

02:43 And so when one looks at China, the dominant perspective is what does America do about

02:49 the rise of China?

02:50 And it's not we have a conflict of interest, how do we manage it?

02:54 The whole concept of a conflict of interest has been an eclipse in recent years and that's

03:00 one of the reflections of the demise of the Kissinger generation.

03:04 So I fear the rise of China with the transformation in American perspectives on international

03:09 politics and a new generation of policy makers, Kissinger's own personal perspective, his

03:15 strategic perspective will be missing from American foreign policy and thus also from

03:20 US-China relations.

03:23 So what will Kissinger's legacy be, do you think?

03:27 Well there's no substitute for his breakthrough with China and his Cold War diplomacy.

03:33 The US-China breakthrough was critically important to the Cold War and of course his relationship

03:39 with the Soviet Union was equally important with armed control.

03:42 So those are two major accomplishments that no one can take away.

03:46 Those who are going to look at human rights issues, on American intervention in the developing

03:50 world, the Vietnam War, will be concerned about the intervention in Cambodia, the Chile,

03:58 the Pakistan problem.

03:59 But I think over the longer run, these major Cold War initiatives will take a dominant

04:04 place in our understanding of the world.

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