Juan Williams: Uncles to the New China ... George Herbert Walker Bush and Henry Kissinger
Beijing, August 9 – Henry Kissinger is standing in the entry to the newly rebuilt Jianfu Palace inside the Forbidden City, once home to the Chinese emperor. The 85-year-old gets a greeting worthy of an emperor from Chinese political and business leaders.
To Kissinger's right is another American imperial presence during these Olympics: 84-year-old former U.S. President George H. W. Bush. The senior Bush was the first U.S. liaison to China after Kissinger and President Nixon opened the door to U.S. diplomatic relations with China in 1972.
Bush and Kissinger came to China for the opening of the Olympics as revered elders. As China celebrates its thriving economy and rising political power on the world stage the Chinese leadership recognizes these two octogenarian Americans as not quite founding fathers but important uncles to this new China.
It was 1971 when Kissinger, then the U.S. national security adviser, traveled secretly into China to meet with former Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. They negotiated President Nixon's meeting in 1972 with Chairman Mao that signaled the end of nearly twenty year-long estrangement between communist Red China and the U.S.
Kissinger's role during the turmoil of Vietnam and his support for Nixon during the Watergate scandals is a non-story here. At these Olympics he is an honored pioneer who laid the groundwork for China's growth. And Kissinger looks back on his work in China with clear emotion of a proud relative.
His voice shifting lower he told me there are not many times in life when you know you have made a difference, but China is "one time when I know I made a difference for the good." The very building he is standing in is evidence to that truth. Built in 1740 as one of several pavilions in a garden court it was burned down in 1923 and only recently restored through joint financial help from Chinese and U.S. business leaders.
Kissinger praised the late Zhou Enlai as a great negotiating partner. According to archival records of their negotiations opened just a few years ago the Chinese Prime Minister focused on getting U.S. support in holding off Russian hegemony while limiting the U.S. military presence in Asia, particularly in Taiwan and Korea. Kissinger had a different focus. He wanted to build China's confidence to allow the leadership to take the risk of opening its doors to American business and innovation as well as to a political alliance against the Russians. To that end Kissinger convinced the Chinese that President Nixon understood the differences between the communist leadership in Moscow and the communist leadership in Beijing.
There are ups and some disappointing downs in the U.S. relationship with China. But looking at modern China through Kissinger's eyes it is impossible not to be giddy at the Olympian fruit that has grown from those 1971 talks. The odds did not favor China, in just over 30 years, hosting its first Olympics much less becoming a powerful economic and political player that is willing to stand with the U.S. on issues from halting North Korea's nuclear ambitions to dealing with global energy policy.
Former President Bush, in remarks during the dinner here Saturday night, joked that he is literally a proud father after Chinese President Hu Jintao told him 8 years of his son's administration have improved U.S. - Chinese relations to the point that they have never been better.
Looking back on his work as a diplomat here in the 1970s, the former President said he always believed China's relationship with the U.S. was important to stabilizing the region. Now he said time has proven him right to the point that he now believes the most important bi-lateral relationship in the world is between Beijing and Washington. With Russia at war last week fighting to hold on to what remains of the former Soviet empire, Bush's words seem beyond argument. Last week's opening of a new $450 million U.S. embassy in Beijing, second in size only to the U.S. embassy in Iraq, also confirmed the increasingly critical nature of U.S. ties to China.
Even widespread U.S. concern over China's questionable position on human rights, in Tibet and the Sudan, seems lacking in perspective given the gross history of Chinese repression. Tens of thousands died under the heavy hand of Chinese communism 40 years ago during Chairman Mao's repressive Cultural Revolution. Similarly, the power of the famous picture taken in Tiananmen Square, with one man standing defiant against the power of a government tank in the 1980s, seems distant now when a Pew poll, done before the Olympics, shows the Chinese to be near the top of a worldwide survey of people most content with their government's leadership and their lives.
Based on face-to-face interviews after March riots in Tibet and a deadly May earthquake, the poll found that among citizens of 24 nations the Chinese are the most satisfied "the way things are going in their country and with their nation's economy." That includes 65 percent of Chinese who say their government is doing a good job on issues most important to them, such as increasing wealth and opportunity.
What must be particularly pleasing to Bush and Kissinger is that 70 percent of Chinese, according to the Pew poll, say their former communist country is better off with its hybrid form of capitalism.
The poll's results were evident to me in a visit to Sichuan Province where an earthquake three months ago killed thousands. In Dujiangyan city a 63 year old man, Qi Chengbin, who lost his only child, an 18-year-old son, in the earthquake and now lives in temporary housing had only praise for what he called the government's fast response. He said 30 years ago he lived in worse conditions than his current temporary shelter.
Kissinger and the elder Bush are old enough to know the truth of how much change has taken place in China – change for the better – during their lifetime. The Chinese and their leadership are also in touch with the rapid change and intent on trying to control it. As Americans watch China's missteps on human rights, the environment and the press it helps to see modern China through the eyes of those two old American diplomats who had a hand in transforming China — Bush and Kissinger.
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To Kissinger's right is another American imperial presence during these Olympics: 84-year-old former U.S. President George H. W. Bush. The senior Bush was the first U.S. liaison to China after Kissinger and President Nixon opened the door to U.S. diplomatic relations with China in 1972.
Bush and Kissinger came to China for the opening of the Olympics as revered elders. As China celebrates its thriving economy and rising political power on the world stage the Chinese leadership recognizes these two octogenarian Americans as not quite founding fathers but important uncles to this new China.
It was 1971 when Kissinger, then the U.S. national security adviser, traveled secretly into China to meet with former Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. They negotiated President Nixon's meeting in 1972 with Chairman Mao that signaled the end of nearly twenty year-long estrangement between communist Red China and the U.S.
Kissinger's role during the turmoil of Vietnam and his support for Nixon during the Watergate scandals is a non-story here. At these Olympics he is an honored pioneer who laid the groundwork for China's growth. And Kissinger looks back on his work in China with clear emotion of a proud relative.
His voice shifting lower he told me there are not many times in life when you know you have made a difference, but China is "one time when I know I made a difference for the good." The very building he is standing in is evidence to that truth. Built in 1740 as one of several pavilions in a garden court it was burned down in 1923 and only recently restored through joint financial help from Chinese and U.S. business leaders.
Kissinger praised the late Zhou Enlai as a great negotiating partner. According to archival records of their negotiations opened just a few years ago the Chinese Prime Minister focused on getting U.S. support in holding off Russian hegemony while limiting the U.S. military presence in Asia, particularly in Taiwan and Korea. Kissinger had a different focus. He wanted to build China's confidence to allow the leadership to take the risk of opening its doors to American business and innovation as well as to a political alliance against the Russians. To that end Kissinger convinced the Chinese that President Nixon understood the differences between the communist leadership in Moscow and the communist leadership in Beijing.
There are ups and some disappointing downs in the U.S. relationship with China. But looking at modern China through Kissinger's eyes it is impossible not to be giddy at the Olympian fruit that has grown from those 1971 talks. The odds did not favor China, in just over 30 years, hosting its first Olympics much less becoming a powerful economic and political player that is willing to stand with the U.S. on issues from halting North Korea's nuclear ambitions to dealing with global energy policy.
Former President Bush, in remarks during the dinner here Saturday night, joked that he is literally a proud father after Chinese President Hu Jintao told him 8 years of his son's administration have improved U.S. - Chinese relations to the point that they have never been better.
Looking back on his work as a diplomat here in the 1970s, the former President said he always believed China's relationship with the U.S. was important to stabilizing the region. Now he said time has proven him right to the point that he now believes the most important bi-lateral relationship in the world is between Beijing and Washington. With Russia at war last week fighting to hold on to what remains of the former Soviet empire, Bush's words seem beyond argument. Last week's opening of a new $450 million U.S. embassy in Beijing, second in size only to the U.S. embassy in Iraq, also confirmed the increasingly critical nature of U.S. ties to China.
Even widespread U.S. concern over China's questionable position on human rights, in Tibet and the Sudan, seems lacking in perspective given the gross history of Chinese repression. Tens of thousands died under the heavy hand of Chinese communism 40 years ago during Chairman Mao's repressive Cultural Revolution. Similarly, the power of the famous picture taken in Tiananmen Square, with one man standing defiant against the power of a government tank in the 1980s, seems distant now when a Pew poll, done before the Olympics, shows the Chinese to be near the top of a worldwide survey of people most content with their government's leadership and their lives.
Based on face-to-face interviews after March riots in Tibet and a deadly May earthquake, the poll found that among citizens of 24 nations the Chinese are the most satisfied "the way things are going in their country and with their nation's economy." That includes 65 percent of Chinese who say their government is doing a good job on issues most important to them, such as increasing wealth and opportunity.
What must be particularly pleasing to Bush and Kissinger is that 70 percent of Chinese, according to the Pew poll, say their former communist country is better off with its hybrid form of capitalism.
The poll's results were evident to me in a visit to Sichuan Province where an earthquake three months ago killed thousands. In Dujiangyan city a 63 year old man, Qi Chengbin, who lost his only child, an 18-year-old son, in the earthquake and now lives in temporary housing had only praise for what he called the government's fast response. He said 30 years ago he lived in worse conditions than his current temporary shelter.
Kissinger and the elder Bush are old enough to know the truth of how much change has taken place in China – change for the better – during their lifetime. The Chinese and their leadership are also in touch with the rapid change and intent on trying to control it. As Americans watch China's missteps on human rights, the environment and the press it helps to see modern China through the eyes of those two old American diplomats who had a hand in transforming China — Bush and Kissinger.