Henry Kissinger, the 100-year-old former US Secretary of State, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, a day after US climate envoy John Kerry concluded his tour to relaunch climate negotiations with China. Kissinger is in Beijing this week on an unexpected visit.
According to official broadcaster CCTV, Xi and Kissinger met at the Diaoyutai official Guesthouse, a diplomatic facility in western Beijing where Chinese leaders frequently host foreign visitors.
Following Kissinger’s meetings with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, and Li Shangfu, its defence minister, who has been subject to US sanctions since 2018 because of China’s acquisition of Russian weapons, the two men will meet.
Kissinger’s meeting with Xi is indicative of how highly he is regarded by China’s leadership.
His previously unannounced visit overlapped with Kerry’s high-profile visit to Beijing, which saw US and China resume climate talks that had been frozen for nearly a year.
Noticeably, Kerry, who is also a former US Secretary of State, was not granted an audience with Xi, despite being a serving member of President Joe Biden’s current administration and anticipation by some observers beforehand that such a face to face could be on the cards.
Kissinger, who said he was in Beijing “as a friend of China,” played a key role in paving the way for the US to establish diplomatic ties with Communist China half a century ago during the Nixon administration.
The former diplomat has visited China more than 100 times since 1971, when he paid a secret visit to Beijing to pave the way for Nixon’s “ice-breaking” trip the following year, CCTV reported.
