BEIJING: Chinese leader Xi Jinping met former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in Beijing on Thursday, state media reported, describing the 100-year-old as a “legendary diplomat.”
Kissinger used the visit to call for a rapprochement between the United States and China, which remain at loggerheads over a range of disputes, from human rights to trade and national security.
It also overlapped with a trip by US climate envoy John Kerry, and follows recent visits by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“On July 20, President Xi Jinping met former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse,” state broadcaster CCTV said, hailing his role in having opened up relations between China and the United States in the 1970s.
China’s state media did not offer further details on the meeting, which took place at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse’s building number five — the same location as a historic meeting between Kissinger and then-premier Zhou Enlai in 1971.
A US national security adviser, Kissinger secretly flew to Beijing in July 1971 on a mission to establish relations with communist China.
That trip set the stage for a landmark visit by former US president Richard Nixon, who sought both to shake up the Cold War and enlist help in ending the Vietnam War.
Washington’s overtures to an isolated Beijing contributed to China’s rise to become a manufacturing powerhouse and the world’s second-largest economy.
Since leaving office, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kissinger has grown wealthy advising businesses on China — and has warned against a hawkish turn in US policy.
“Since 1971, Dr. Kissinger has visited China more than 100 times,” CCTV said on Thursday.
“On May 27 this year, the legendary diplomat celebrated his 100th birthday, and this visit is also his first trip to China since turning 100,” it added.
State news agency Xinhua reported him as telling defense minister Li Shangfu on Tuesday: “Kissinger said in today’s world, challenges and opportunities coexist, and both the United States and China should eliminate misunderstandings, coexist peacefully, and avoid confrontation.”
Kissinger also met on Wednesday with top diplomat Wang Yi, who praised Kissinger’s “historic contributions to the ice-breaking development of China-US relations.”
“The US policy toward China needs Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom and Nixon-style political courage,” Wang said.
Xi Jinping meets former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in Beijing
https://arab.news/2byd9
Xi Jinping meets former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in Beijing
- Statesman uses visit to call for a rapprochement between the US and China
- His travel also overlapped with a trip by US climate envoy John Kerry
Five miners trapped deep underground after mudslide floods South African diamond mine
- The miners have been trapped since the early hours of Tuesday, according to a labor alliance
- The mine is in the central city of Kimberley, which is renowned for its diamond mines
JOHANNESBURG: Five miners were trapped deep underground at a South African diamond mine after a mudslide flooded a shaft they were working in, mine officials and a labor union said Thursday.
The miners have been trapped since the early hours of Tuesday, according to the Congress of South African Trade Unions — an alliance of labor unions that includes the main mineworkers union. The congress said the miners were thought to be trapped around 800 meters (half a mile) underground.
Ekapa Mining General Manager Howard Marsden, whose company operates the mine, told national broadcaster SABC on Wednesday that rescuers were pumping water out of the shaft while a separate team was trying to drill a hole to where the miners were believed to be trapped to try to establish communication with them “or any proof of life.”
The mine is in the central city of Kimberley, which is renowned for its diamond mines and was at the heart of the global industry after diamonds were discovered in the area in the late 1800s.
The Minerals Council of South Africa said this month in its annual safety report that 41 miners died in mining accidents in South Africa last year, a record low and down from hundreds a year in the 1990s and early 2000s.
South Africa is among the world’s biggest producers of diamonds and gold, and the top producer of platinum.
