BEIJING: Fifty years ago, then U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger undertook a secret mission to Beijing, which helped lay the groundwork for U.S. President Richard Nixon’s ice-breaking China visit and the eventual normalization of relations between the two long-estranged countries.
Fifty years later, the relationship between the world’s top two economies now stands at another critical juncture because of an increasingly agitated Washington.
For the common interests of both countries and the wider global community, it is imperative to look back at history and digest the important revelations of the world-changing move half a century ago and the development of China-U.S. ties in the following decades. Kissinger’s trip to China was code-named “Marco Polo,” meaning the mission was as unknown and unpredictable as the Italian merchant and explorer’s adventure to the mysterious oriental land in the 13th century. Before the visit, Beijing and Washington had neither diplomatic ties nor economic interactions with each other, while a “Red China” scare and anti-communism sentiments dominated America’s politics. When then Chinese and U.S. leaders chose to break the barriers and reopen the door for exchanges at the height of the Cold War, they looked farther than their living time and thought with a global vision.
As Kissinger, who later served as U.S. secretary of state, observed in his book “On China,” when China and the United States started to restore relations, the most significant contribution made by the leaders of that time was their willingness to raise their sight beyond the immediate issues of the day.
In the Cold War era, there were indeed geopolitical and strategic considerations in the rapprochement of China-U.S. ties, but the development of China-U.S. relations also showed that China and the United States, with quite different ideologies, cultures and political systems, are capable of living together in peace and engaging in win-win cooperation as long as they have the will to act in the shared interests of both countries and their people. – Agencies
