China: Containment Won't Work - Kissinger

Washington Post ^ | June 13, 2005 | Henry Kissinger

[AFPhys]

…ambivalence has suddenly reemerged. Various officials, members of Congress and the media are attacking China's policies, from the exchange rate to military buildup The rise of China -- and of Asia -- will, over the next decades, bring about a substantial reordering of the international system Military imperialism is not the Chinese style. Clausewitz, the leading Western strategic theoretician, addresses the preparation and conduct of a central battle. Sun Tzu, his Chinese counterpart, focuses on the psychological weakening of the adversary. China seeks its objectives by careful study, patience and the accumulation of nuances U.S. policy in Asia must not mesmerize itself with the Chinese military buildup...

...In a U.S. confrontation with China, the vast majority of nations will seek to avoid choosing sides...

...China, in its own interest, is seeking cooperation with the United States for many reasons, including the need to close the gap between its own developed and developing regions; the imperative of adjusting its political institutions to the accelerating economic and technological revolutions; and the potentially catastrophic impact of a Cold War with the United States...

The issue of nuclear weapons in North Korea is an important test case...

…Attitudes are psychologically important. China needs to be careful about policies seeming to exclude America from Asia and our sensitivities regarding human rights, which will influence the flexibility and scope of the U.S. stance toward China. America needs to understand that a hectoring tone evokes in China memories of imperialist condescension and that it is not appropriate in dealing with a country that has managed 4,000 years of uninterrupted self-government.

[thierrya]

CHINA TRADE - Lion Dancing With Wolves
By Timothy W. Maier

Make no mistake about it, they are hired guns for the trade partners of the People's Republic of China. It is their access to Beijing that makes former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Alexander M. Haig, a retired army general, the favorite gunslingers of U.S. firms vying to tap into the PRC's market.

Kissinger and Haig stand to profit richly from contracts with China that, in some cases, put the United States in a vulnerable position, according to current and former national-security officials. Insight has learned Kissinger personally pockets a percentage of profits generated from deals he develops for American firms, while according to the Philadelphia Inquirer Haig has collected directly from the Chinese at least once as a paid but unregistered adviser - allegedly a felony breach of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, about which neither the Justice Department nor Haig would comment.
http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=209729

[Wiz]

Thanks, that sounds good enough. The constrain is that technology is making military equipment so expensive that it is likely the military size to srink (sniff).

[Tailgunner Joe]

Military imperialism is not the Chinese style.

Tell that to Tibet.

[Richard Axtell]

"4,000 years of uninterrupted self-government"

Uninterrupted, if you ignore the Mongol and Manchu dynasties, both the result of the conquest of China. China absorbed it's conquerers though, over the centuries.

I hear many such examples of cultural "cheer leading" regarding China's antiquity and achievements. All basically irrelevant. The issue is THIS current communist-rooted government and ruling clique.

The current government sees itself as embattled, much the way Japan saw itself in the 1930's. Japan used this sense of encirclement to incite its population to militant nationalism and militarism that mirrored the Fascism of Germany and Italy, and the threat of Bolshevism to scare its people. China follows on course, using the United States as its great threat.

As with all militaristic Fascist states, this build up, however nuanced, however slow and well thought out, has only one purpose; war. History does matter here, just not Chinese history. Expect Pearl Harbor II in the next decade at the latest.

[BroncosFan]

You should read this article and the thread. It's a nuanced update of his traditional position as Beijing's handmaid. No, this is not like 1914; not at all. No, a rising great power does not always have to fight the #1 (look at UK-US in the same era as UK-Kaiser Bill). But Henry should know that nations have no permanent friends, only permanent interests. Ours and Tokyo's are incompatible with Beijing's.

One thing that especially bugged me -- Taiwan is NOT an exception. The PRC might be playing nice with Russia and India, for now. But they've been aggressive in the South China Sea, are building a big naval base in Burma, arming the Pakis, influencing Bangladesh, mucking about in Latin America, helping Iran, etc. Is the Good Doctor asking me to believe that all this isn't part of a grand strategy? I mean, in this article he takes pains to point out how subtle and thoughtful the PRC is. Well, that isn't necessarily a good thing!

[Bonaparte]

"...from one of the most important foreign policy advisors of the 20th Century."

He's a clown who maintained for years that soviet victory was inevitable and the best we could hope for was the least humiliating capitulation. He mocked and ridiculed Ronald Reagan's initiatives directed at bringing down the evil empire. Nixon was a fool to listen to this man.

[mr_hammer]

Ping

[PGalt]

Thanks for the post. Interesting discussion.

[AFPhys]

Kissinger is a great intellect and we are lucky to have him still around. However, it should be recalled that policies he championed in the past such as detente arguably were disastrously wrong.

I completely agree - and this is why I was hoping for some good FReeper discussion about this article.

Kissinger is in some ways like Morris - he's a great - no, GREAT - theoretical analyst, but it seems he's often falling very short of applying that analysis to the real world. I'm not sure where this article falls. Since it doesn't really raise a whole load of strong policy recommendations, I kind of like the way it does "conscious raising" about some issues in ways I've not quite seen done as effectively.

I do agree with you that it is tough to find the balance of attempting to "enforce" human rights and "allowing" China or another nation to discover for themselves the best path.

China is a multi-ethnic multi-cultural country. There has been and continues to be regional rivalry. There continues to be separatist movements in some of the regions such as Tibet....It may be true that in the past China has searched for relations with the US but that does not mean China has become an ally."

A very small excerpt of a very nice post#16, Wiz. Thanks for your part in this discussion.

[Wiz]

Sorry everyone. I wan not clear about one portion.

According to studies by Chinese intellectuals, they have been showing concerns of presence in Afghanistan which shares borders.

According to studies by Chinese intellectuals, they have been showing concerns of US military presence in Afghanistan which shares borders.

[phoenix_004]

"Containment Won't Work - Kissinger"

Ya right!!!!lol!!! This sought of arguement was expected from a chicom lover who has business interests in china!!!

"China, in its own interest, is seeking cooperation with the United States for many reasons"

china seeking co-operation with america????How??? By threathening our allies, taiwan and japan in asia??? By enticing australia with trade agreements like FTA to move away from america? By trying to exclude america from asia? Helping rogue states like n.korea and iran who happen to be our enemies??? Spying on us and building a military strong enough to take on america even when they have no threat from us or any other country in region????
Let's not blind ourselves by believing that chinese have only peaceful intensions in mind and when they do become a superpower, all countries of the world will live happily everafter under the guidance of china(ofcourse!)!!!!
Their history proves that they have anything but peaceful intensions in mind!!! Wars with india , vietnam, tensions with peace -loving japan.......and the list goes on !!!!!!

[phoenix_004]

Beautifully written article..... you make more sense than Kissinger!!!!

[ColoCdn]

Kissinger has always been a 'realpolitik' shill. His amoral policies were wrong before Reagan's ascent, and they're wrong now, as ever.

He once praised Mao Tse-Tung, by saying that Mao must be proud of all the changes that he made in China (a disgusting thing for which to praise a leader who murdered millions of his own people, and just about destroyed an entire generation with the Red Guard).

Mao's response was dripping with truth. "I have changed a few places around Beijing, but I have not changed China."

It is the powerbrokers, and the apparatchiks in Beijing who maintain the stranglehold on the people of the state of China. Many nationalities within that state wish they were able to exercise their freedoms as nations. But the communist state will never allow that as long as it exists.

[Aquinasfan]

One of the most interesting anecdotes that I've heard about Kissinger and Mao. It's very telling:

Mao: I am going to heaven soon. . . . And when I . . . see God, I'll tell him it's better to have Taiwan under the care of the United States now.

Kissinger: He'll be very astonished to hear that from the chairman.

Mao: No, because God blesses you, not us. (Mao waves his hands.) God does not like us because I am a militant warlord, also a communist. That's why he doesn't like me. He likes you.

Kissinger: I've never had the pleasure of meeting him, so I don't know. . . .

Link.(Warning: website plays obnoxious music)

[RussianBoor]

He (Kissinger) once praised Mao Tse-Tung, by saying that Mao must be proud of all the changes that he made in China (a disgusting thing for which to praise a leader who murdered millions of his own people, and just about destroyed an entire generation with the Red Guard).

Once? Have you read this?

It is unwise to substitute China for the Soviet Union in our thinking and to apply to it the policy of military containment of the Cold War. The Soviet Union was heir to an imperialist tradition, which, between Peter the Great and the end of World War II, projected Russia from the region around Moscow to the center of Europe. The Chinese state in its present dimensions has existed substantially for 2,000 years. The Russian empire was governed by force; the Chinese empire by cultural conformity with substantial force in the background.

Cultural conformity indeed. I bet Kissinger has heard about cultural revolution that killed millions of people. I bet Kissinger knows about thousands of militant Maoist groups everywhere from Nepal to as far as Peru (Sendero Luminoso). Then, how about Tibet and its annexation in 1949? Was 1949 2000 years ago?

I am completely astonished how Americans can tolerate open apology of bloody communist and aggressive regime such as Kissinger's recent articles.