Event held to mark 50th anniversary of Kissinger visit

An event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Henry Kissinger's secret trip to China took place at Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guest House on Friday, the very place where the national security adviser to then United States president Richard Nixon spent many hours in conversations with then Premier Zhou Enlai.

That trip was followed by Nixon's historic visit to China the following year and the signing of the Shanghai Communique, the first communique between China and the US.

Addressing the event, Vice-President Wang Qishan said that despite ups and downs over the past five decades, Sino-US relations have kept moving forward, bringing enormous benefits to the two peoples and contributing to world peace, prosperity and stability.

China's development is an opportunity for the world, and Beijing and Washington should be partners for common development, Wang said.

He urged the two countries to seek common ground while shelving differences, respect each other's sovereignty, security and development interests, and properly handle differences through consultation to resolve any concerns in a balanced way.

He also urged the two sides to expand their common interests and continue to strengthen people-to-people exchanges.

It is the US itself, and not China, that poses the biggest challenge for Washington, Wang said, adding that the US strategy toward China should avoid a vicious circle of misguidance and miscalculation.

As long as China and the US uphold the vision of a shared future for mankind, the two countries will not face fundamentally antagonistic or irreconcilable contradictions, and will be able to find a path of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, he said.

Speaking both live and in recorded video in the US, Kissinger said the premise that led to his secret visit to China is still valid, even more so today than 50 years ago, and that the two countries should ramp up cooperation and avoid conflicts.