Centenarian diplomat’s tips on living with China

Choi Hoon
The author is the chief editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.

A major source of concerns for South Korea is its future relationship with China. We can heed the wisdom Henry Kissinger shared in a lengthy interview on ways to “avoid world war three” with The Economist last month on the occasion of his centennial birthday. The advice from the former U.S. national security adviser and secretary of state who midwifed the landmark U.S.-China diplomatic normalization at age 49 can offer some clues to dealing with the country across the Yellow Sea.

On Taiwan, Kissinger recalled President Richard Nixon’s first visit to China in 1972. Chinese leader Mao Zedong would stop Nixon when he raised a concrete subject, saying, “I’m a philosopher. I don’t deal with these subjects. Let [Premier] Zhou [Enlai] and Kissinger discuss this.” But when it came to the issue of Taiwan, Mao would not pass. “They [Taiwan] are a bunch of counter-revolutionaries. We don’t need them now. We can wait 100 years. Someday we will ask for them.” The understanding between Nixon and Mao to wait a century over a possible contention over Taiwan was halved to 50 by former U.S. president Donald Trump, according to Kissinger’s analysis.

He showed a similar analysis in his 2011 book “On China.” To Beijing, Taiwan was founded by traitors who joined forces with foreign allies — and poses as the last remnant of China’s “century of humiliation.” As long as there is a separate administration backed by foreign countries, the mission of building a new China is incomplete, Kissinger wrote. What the West regards as “changing the status quo by force” means the completion of a “new China” for Beijing. Given such a sharp distinction between the two, it could be better for Korea to save words on hypothetical issues like a potential war over Taiwan.

In the interview with The Economist, Kissinger defined the Chinese system “more Confucian than Marxist.” That comment can hardly be agreed to by South Koreans who suffered from the war with North Korea at the backing of China and who have seen how Beijing had been evasive about Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. But Kissinger seemed to emphasize that Sino-centrism has affected the foreign policy of China.

Kissinger had been more specific on the Chinese mindset and worldview in the book. In a letter to U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in 1863, Qing Emperor Tongzhi wrote that under the heaven’s order to command the world, China at the center would not discriminate the surrounding countries by considering them as one of the families. It represents the innate Chinese belief that even if another group occupies the vast land of China, it will be assimilated into China. Therefore, China did not have to proliferate its values and ideology to others and instead simply had to manage the “barbarians” along the border to prevent outside forces from forming an alliance to attack China. It had been central to China to have its peripheral states pay tribute to the Chinese emperor and respect that China is the center of the world.

Unlike chess whose goal is to kill the king, the game of go is an imperial game, where each player just seeks to secure more territory than the opponent in order to win. China’s art of warfare under the advice of iconic general Sun Tzu follows the same wisdom of “winning without fighting.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nov. 8, 2018. [AP/YONHAP]

In the interview with The Economist, Kissinger explained that the long-held Chinese system teaches “Chinese leaders to attain the maximum strength of which their country is capable and to seek to be respected for their accomplishments.” “Chinese leaders want to be recognized as the international system’s final judges of their own interests,” Kissinger said. He disagreed with Washington’s mainstream belief that China wants to dominate the world with Hitler-like ambition. “If they achieved the superiority that can genuinely be used, would they drive it to the point of imposing Chinese culture?” Kissinger implored. “I don’t know. My instinct is No … [But] I believe it is in our capacity to prevent that situation from arising by a combination of diplomacy,” he said.

During a brief meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that “China respects the interests of the U.S.” and would not “challenge or replace” the western superpower, expressing his hope that the U.S. does the same “by respecting China and not harming China’s legitimate rights and interests.” This offers some food for thought to Korea that is “solely in defiance of Beijing.”

What China opposes most is the “global rules-based order,” according to Kissinger, as it is humiliating for China to accept and follow the U.S.-set rules in return for rewards. It may be why Seoul is losing favor with Beijing with the Korean president often chanting along the U.S. emphasis on the alliance with countries with “universal vales” in democracy and human rights.

The centenarian diplomat underscores that humanity’s future lies in the peaceful co-existence of the United States and China. Instead of “all-or-nothing” attitude by aiming for a regime change or dissolution, the U.S. must acknowledge China’s interests and explore common values for cooperation and permanent dialogue to discover their strategic roles, for instance, in mediating to end the Ukraine war or preventing a global catastrophe where AI-led weapons could lead to unrivaled destruction, Kissinger says. The diplomatic sage advises stakeholders to persistently research and understand the country that make up 6.7 percent of the earth’s surface and 18 percent of the global population if they really want to prevent another war and ensure a lasting peace on the planet.