"Henry K. in Beijing."

China finally finds someone to talk to.

History. Kissinger, Zhou, and Mao in Beijing. Undated, early 1970s. (Oliver Atkins/ Wikimedia Commons.)

23 JULY—Secretary of State Blinken traveled to Beijing in mid–June and got nothing done. Treasury Secretary Yellen followed within weeks and got nothing done. John Kerry, secretary of nothing who is supposed to be doing something about climate policy but one cannot make out what, finished up a round of talks in the Chinese capital last weekend. And got nothing done. 

This has been going on since the Biden regime befouled relations with China shortly after the January 2021 inauguration. None of these people has been received in Beijing with more than minimal courtesy and not quite that if we are measuring respect. 

Last week none other than Henry Kissinger, small and stooped at nearly 100 but still at it, had his own round of talks in Beijing. The carpet could not have been any redder for this longtime “friend of China,” an informal designation the Chinese have used since 1949 to describe trusted foreigners. 

Nor could Henry’s itinerary have been more pointedly welcoming. Last Tuesday he met Li Shangfu, the defense minister, who has more or less middle-fingered Lloyd Austin in response to the SecDef’s requests to hold talks—this for two good reasons. One, because the Biden regime has idiotically decided to sanction Li personally. Two, Li is supposed to talk to Austin while the regime conducts a concerted campaign to encircle China militarily and pretends it is doing no such thing? What would be the point?   

Also on Tuesday, Kissinger had talks with Wang Yi, the Xi government’s sternly wary foreign policy chief. At midweek came talks with President Xi—these held in the same Forbidden City villa where, as Nixon’s secretary of state, Henry met Premier Zhou Enlai during the dramatic rapprochement that produced the Shanghai Communiqué 50 years ago and led to the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1979.