Kissinger 'n' tell goes to China, again
China in the early 1970s returned to Beijing. Not quite Mani Shankar Aiyar going to Islamabad to cure relations — or former American basketballer Dennis Rodman going to Kim Jong-un's North Korea — but 'Henry Kissinger Goes to China: The Sequel' has to be interesting on two levels.
One, with China and the US not being nice to each in the sandpit — there is no Sandpit B, yet — Xi Jinping scores by getting Richard Nixon's old secretary of state who ushered ping-pong diplomacy that paved the way for China-US relations (bypassing Beijing's northern communist neighbour). Two, Kissinger has found a relevance — to do something other than theorise and analyse via writing books, his 2011 one (coincidentally?) titled On China.
Having turned 100 this May, Kissinger would have been in the news just by turning 100. But by taking a flight to China, being given a hero's welcome, and being showcased as 'Kissinger 'n' Tell' in times of US-China woopsies, the gravel-voiced one gets extra points.
For someone who once called a former Indian PM a 'bitch' and with his president boss didn't see India or Indians in a good light of geopolitics during the Cold War/Bangladesh War, Kissinger in China at this juncture makes sense. In a kind of old rerun, entertaining way.
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