Yesterday, Dr. Henry Kissinger appeared on the Charlie Rose Show to promote his new book On China. I found the interview to be very interesting.
Some salient points:
- Two key issues that China faces in the next decade: (1) reconciling economic change with their political system, and (2) dealing with the fallout of the One Child Policy.
- China's fear is the U.S. geopolitically encircling it a la containment. The U.S.'s implicit fear is China creating an East Asian Bloc and pushing it out of the region. There needs to be more high-level bilateral dialogue between China and the U.S. so that both sides understand each other's views and fears (see Youtube clip below).
- Too many people on both sides erroneously see individual events on the other side as part of a larger plan to contain their influence.
- With regards to human rights, the U.S. needs to understand that China doesn't want to be lectured. China needs to understand that Americans innately feel strongly about transgressions on individual human dignity.
- There has never been a smooth regime change in China -- China's history alternates between stability and disintegration. There is a latent fear of mass chaos via regime change.
- The recent financial crisis has struck a blow against the legitimacy of U.S. economic policies in the eyes of the Chinese.
See the full interview at: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11701
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