Wang Yi and Antony Blinken, the respective top diplomats of China and the United States, traded subtle barbs on Wednesday in their first publicized call since their bosses met last month in San Francisco.
Wang, the Chinese foreign minister, invoked the memory of the late Henry Kissinger to scold Blinken, while the U.S. secretary of state appeared to rebuke his opposite number for Beijing's alleged shirking of international obligations in the Middle East.
Kissinger, who died on November 29 at the age of 100, held Blinken's position in the 1970s and paved the way for a U.S.-China rapprochement that led to mutual recognition by the decade's end. To Beijing's leaders, Kissinger remained to the very end a revered "old friend," whose policy positions were far more agreeable than those of his present-day successors.
Wang, who the previous day had paid his respects to the late statesman at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, used Kissinger's diplomatic legacy in an apparent critique of current U.S. policies, according to a Chinese state media readout of his call with Blinken.
"Dr. Kissinger has always advocated that China and the United States should respect each other, evolve together and fulfill their due international responsibilities," China's state broadcast CCTV quoted Wang as saying.
Wang, whose ministerial role is trumped by his post as the Communist Party's top foreign affairs official, said: "He has repeatedly emphasized that the United States should fully understand the importance of the Taiwan issue to China. The diplomatic legacy he left behind is worthy of promotion and development by future generations."
Kissinger spent the final decades of his life running a geopolitical business consultancy and opining on the state of the world. The Chinese leadership has used his legacy and occasional presence in China as an example of its preferred interlocutors.
Wang's call with Blinken may be a sign of more stable bilateral relations despite obvious differences between the world's two largest economies, over trade, technology, global governance and, most significantly, the de facto independence of self-ruled Taiwan.
The U.S. State Department said Blinken touched on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East during the phone call, which Beijing said was requested by Washington.
"The Secretary underscored that the recent Houthi attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea pose an unacceptable threat to maritime security and international law that all nations have an obligation to uphold," the U.S. readout said, pointing to events that unfolded over the weekend.
A U.S. warship on Sunday shot down three hostile drones during ballistic missile attacks launched from Houthi rebel-held territories in Yemen that struck three commercial vessels. Blinken's comments suggested Chinese navy ships on counter-privacy patrols in the area did not assist.
People's Liberation Army Navy vessels recently appeared to ignore a distress call by a Liberian-flagged ship that came under attack by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. American and Japanese warships in the area were among those that intervened.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aadil Brar is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian ... Read more
