Henry Alfred Kissinger (PEOPLE'S DAILY )

Henry Alfred Kissinger served as U.S. National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State under administration of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. His advice is sought by many subsequent presidents even after his term. Dr. Kissinger's talk with late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1971 led to the rapprochement of the U.S. and China. People's Daily  had an exclusive interview with Dr. Kissinger at his office in New York on September 10, 2015. Excerpts as follow: 

People's Daily : You have met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for several times. What is your impression of Xi? 

Dr. Kissinger: I have had many conversations with President Xi. He is a man of great determination who has strong lessons from the experiences of his life, and so I think he is among the rank of the most significant of China.

President Xi is going to pay a state visit to the U.S. What should top the list of President Xi's state visit and what are your expectations for this visit? 

What is the most important for China and the U.S. both is to base their policy on the recognition that they are two great countries who need to work in cooperation, not in confrontation--that is the key thing. And then they should apply this conclusion to a number of concrete issues, and I am very hopeful that progress will be made. I am of a different political party from President Obama, but I fully support efforts by President Obama to achieve these objectives.

You have witnessed the development of the Sino-U.S. relations for more than 40 years. There are a lot of ups and downs in the process. How do you see this relation now, and what kind of wisdom do we need to manage those differences? 

When their relationship started, China was at the very beginning of its economic development. If anybody had shown me in 1971 a picture of what Beijing and Shanghai look like today, I would have said that this is crazy--it cannot happen. Yet it has been achieved so tremendously.

I always look at China with the memory of 1971. Though there were enough economic difficulties, they have been overcome, so I don't pay too much attention to them.

When we started the relationship, we had a common adversary. Now, we don't have a common adversary, but we have common opportunities. If we don't work together, many of them can't be reached. Some of the problems cannot be solved by either China or the U.S. alone, like the climate, environment, weapons of massive destruction, or the Internet. These are all things we need to deal with together. Some of these are totally new, like the Internet, that didn't exist when I first came to China, so of course there will be problems. I am very hopeful that President Xi's visit to the U.S. will show progress in some of these fields and in dialogue.

Some question the U.S.'s ability to accept China's rising as an equal, and some say the U.S.-China relations are at a "tipping point." Do you agree with this observation? 

I keep reading these things, and what is the reality? China will be growing, whether we accept it or not. Of course we should accept China becoming what its population and its resources entitle it to be, that should not even be a debate. We are obliged to work together.

Now when people talk about a tipping point, I think a confrontation between China and the U.S. would be very unfortunate for both sides--neither side can meet such a confrontation--in the nearly 50 years that I have seen this relationship, people talk about a lot of tipping points--but the fact is that eight American presidents have carried out the same policy, five Chinese leaders have carried out the same, so we are obliged to work together, and we should work together.

In the book World Order , you talked about the balance of the world order. President Xi has mentioned a "new type of major country relations" many times. In your opinion, how can we best promote that "new type of major country relations" in this new era? 

I think the presidents of both countries have a focal point in their offices for relations with the other, either a person or a group, so the two presidents can keep each other informed and keep in contact with each other.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War II. How should the U.S. and China work together to uphold the world order in the post-war era? How could the U.S. and China play a more constructive role on the global issues? 

I was a soldier during World War II. I was sent to Europe. We started in England, then we went to France, Belgium and finally Germany. My brother was in the Pacific, and he was in Okinawa and Korea, so my family has experienced the war, to say the least.

My view is always the same on that subject: China and the U.S. should cooperate on maintaining peace in the world, especially in Asia, and that is a joint enterprise.

If you were the Secretary of State today, what would be your advice for President Obama in regards to U.S.-Sino relations in his remaining time as president? 

There is little more than a year left, so it's a little late to be doing anything new. My advice for every president is to talk honestly to the Chinese, inform them of their concerns, learn about Chinese issues and try to solve one or two obvious problems. I'm confident that they are going to do this.

(Source: People's Daily  Online)