Former US officials look back at US-China ties

WASHINGTON - Former senior US officials including Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski on Wednesday attended a special conference here to mark the 40th anniversary of former President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China.

The remarks by Kissinger, who served as national security advisor to Nixon at the time, dealt mostly with the historic impact of the visit, praising Nixon for making the decision to go to China and "thus changing the course of world history."

Speaking at the US Institute of Peace forum, Kissinger also called for continuity in US policy toward China.

Brzezinski, the former national security adviser to former president Jimmy Carter, shared his reflections on what Nixon called "the week that changed the world."

J. Stapleton Roy, a former US ambassador to China, noted the growth of the bilateral relationship, saying few strategic problems can be addressed successfully without US-China cooperation.

Forty years ago, Nixon became the first US president to visit the People's Republic of China. He met with the late Chairman Mao Zedong on February 21, and the Shanghai Communique was released on the day he left China.

The visit and the release of the document had a significant impact on Sino-US relations, leading to the official establishment of diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial-level between the countries on January 1, 1979.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi delivered a speech from Beijing to the conference via video link, calling on the two nations to further their ties. His US counterpart Hillary Clinton also gave a speech.