State media hailed him as “China’s old friend.” On Chinese social networks, his death marked the end of an era. They recalled his last visit to the country, in July, at the age of 100.
For many in China, Henry A. Kissinger represented a now-gone chapter in China-US relations, as the two countries seemed to be moving inexorably closer.
In Chinese state media, remembrances of Mr. Kissinger have highlighted his role in organizing President Nixon’s groundbreaking trip to China in 1972 and his advocacy over the past half-century for continued engagement and warmer ties between the two countries. The 1972 visit led to the establishment in 1979 of diplomatic relations between Washington and Communist China; Beijing often cites these years as an example of a golden age in bilateral relations.
At the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s daily press conference on Thursday, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson, said Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, had extended his condolences to President Biden. Premier Li Qiang sent condolences to Mr. Kissinger’s family, and Wang Yi, the foreign minister, sent them to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. Xie Feng, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, written theformerly known as Twitter: “He will always remain alive in the hearts of the Chinese people as a very precious old friend. »
China has sought to highlight the era of engagement that Mr. Kissinger represented as a counter to what Beijing sees as the Biden administration’s efforts to compete with and contain China. In July, China rolled out a red carpet to welcome Mr. Kissinger, including an audience with Mr. Xi.
“Relations between China and the United States will forever be linked to the name ‘Kissinger,'” Mr. Xi told Mr. Kissinger as the two men sat side by side in cream-colored armchairs. “I express my deep respect to you.”
China underlined the historical importance of this Kissinger-Xi meeting in the choice of venue. It was the same building where, half a century earlier, Mr. Kissinger had met Zhou Enlai, then prime minister of China: Villa No. 5 of the Diaoyutai State Guest House.
In July, Mr. Kissinger also met with then-Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who had rejected several requests for meetings with his American counterpart. (This prompted John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the United States National Security Council, to express frustration that a private citizen had more access to Chinese leaders than the government.)
Mr. Kissinger, who visited China more than 100 times, “was considered a living legacy of the good old days,” said Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. .
When Mr Xi was about to take power in 2012, he met Mr Kissinger twice. once in Beijing And then to Washington. In 2019, Mr. Xi told Mr. Kissinger that his “major contributions will go down in the annals of history”.
Mr. Kissinger appears in Chinese textbooks as a crucial figure in relations between China and the United States, a leader who spawned a long period of ever-closer engagement between the two countries. But with President Trump, and then President Biden, shifting U.S. policy from engagement to greater distrust, Mr. Wu said, Mr. Kissinger’s influence was seen as waning.
President Trump has imposed broad tariffs on Chinese goods, stricter screening of visa applications from China, stricter limits on high-tech exports to China, and stricter monitoring of Chinese investment and intelligence gathering activities in the United States. Mr. Biden maintained Mr. Trump’s tariffs and further tightened export controls. He also strengthened military agreements with the Philippines and Australia to counter China.
On Chinese social media, Mr. Kissinger’s death dominated search topics. People shared comments on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, lamenting Mr. Kissinger’s death and that on Tuesday of Charles T. Munger, a prominent American investor also well known in China.
Mr. Kissinger is far less well remembered in Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy over which Beijing has claimed sovereignty. There, he has long been blamed for his central role in shifting U.S. diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing, and for his failure to secure a broad commitment from Beijing not to seize Taiwan. Mr. Kissinger was a frequent visitor to Beijing over the past half-century, but he never went to Taiwan.
“A lot of people think he was not a good friend of Taiwan, and I think there is some truth in that,” said Lu Yeh-chung, a professor at the Taiwan Department of Diplomacy. National Chengchi University, Taipei.
“It is understandable that he cares about the interests of the United States,” said Professor Lu. “However, in this process, Taiwan felt that it was the party that was being betrayed. Of course it hurt.
