A decade after Mao Zedong, after his successful revolution at the head of the Red Army, proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the official newspaper of the Communist Party began to publish lists of foreign politicians, diplomats, scientists and businessmen to whom it granted a kind of honorific title like “old friends of the Chinese people”. Until the end of the 1970s, when the stage of reform and opening began after the disastrous Cultural Revolution, these lists were an exclusive group with very few names. But among them one stood out especially: Henry Kissinger.
In 1971, the then-US Secretary of State secretly flew to Beijing to open diplomatic communications between the United States and China. His efforts led directly to President Nixon’s historic trip to the Asian country a year later, ending 23 years of Chinese isolation. That moment, for many historians, marked the awakening of China on the economic board and a key push to be a superpower today.
When China woke up on Thursday with the news of Kissinger’s death at the age of 100 in his home in Connecticut, the topic quickly became a trend on the country’s most popular social network, Weibo – equivalent to legendary diplomat” was the most talked about of all. Few foreign politicians can boast the status Kissinger had in Beijing, where he is often remembered for his contributions to the normalization of relations between China and the United States.
“Many Chinese mourn the loss of a wise mind who witnessed the world’s turbulence and prosperity in the last century, while others express gratitude for his contribution to China-U.S. relations, considered the most important in the world. current”, summarizes the Chinese newspaper Global Times. “Today, this old friend of the Chinese people, who had keen insight and deep knowledge of world affairs, has completed his legendary life,” reads an obituary published by the China News agency.
Just five months ago, last July, Kissinger, who served as secretary of state and national security adviser in the Nixon and Ford administrations, made a surprise trip to Beijing. He was received by President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State House, the epicenter of what Chinese officials call “gentle diplomacy,” a place that often hosts foreign dignitaries and is more private and informal than the Great Hall of the People. the Tiananmen chamber.