Opinion

Hope for US-China relations as behind-the-scenes diplomacy makes a comeback

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger was known for working behind the scenes in the interest of peace

High-level talks in Vienna, backchannel meetings in China and nuanced, restrained actions around Taiwan suggest greater understanding between Washington and Beijing is not impossible

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Terry Su is president of Lulu Derivation Data Ltd, a Hong Kong-based online publishing house and think tank specialising in geopolitics.

Published: 3:30am, 27 May 2023

Henry Kissinger turns 100 on May 27. In the eyes of some, the former US national security adviser and secretary of state epitomises behind-the-scenes diplomacy with his ice-breaking trips to China, shuttle diplomacy missions in the Middle East and detente manoeuvres with the former Soviet Union in the 1970s.

The way I see it, what he has pursued all his life is more important than ever. We are in a time when, in the words of US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, “all of us should recommit ourselves to preventing such a [World War II-like] horrific catastrophe, and try to resolve differences in means other than the use of the levels of violence that come with great-power war”.

To prevent such a war from erupting again, we need hard-headed diplomacy, not public shouting matches. We need difficult issues to be subject to more to honest, behind-the-scenes discussions with less “megaphone diplomacy”, to quote Brian Davidson, Britain’s consul-general to Hong Kong and Macau, who spoke to the Post earlier this month about Britain’s relations with China and his hope of seeing a new chapter in ties with Hong Kong.