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Xi Jinping meets Kissinger in Beijing
He met with Xi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, CCTV reported. No further details on the talks were disclosed.
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Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (left) meets China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Halll of the People in Beijing on December 2, 2016. (Pool Photo via AP/Nicolas Asfouri)
China's President Xi Jinping met with veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger in Beijing, state media reported on Thursday.
He met with Xi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, CCTV reported. No further details on the talks were disclosed.
Kissinger, 100, has also met with China's top diplomat Wang Yi and with Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu in the past few days while in Beijing
Kissinger served as US secretary of state and national security advisor in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and played a key diplomatic role in normalising ties between Washington and Beijing in the 1970s.
Washington said it was aware of Kissinger's trip to China this week, but noted he was not acting on behalf of the US government.
China's state media did not offer further details on the meeting, which took place at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse's building number five -- the same location as a historic meeting between Kissinger and then-premier Zhou Enlai in 1971.
A US national security adviser, Kissinger secretly flew to Beijing in July 1971 on a mission to establish relations with communist China.
That trip set the stage for a landmark visit by former US president Richard Nixon, who sought both to shake up the Cold War and enlist help in ending the Vietnam War.
Washington's overtures to an isolated Beijing contributed to China's rise to become a manufacturing powerhouse and the world's second-largest economy.
Since leaving office, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kissinger has grown wealthy advising businesses on China -- and has warned against a hawkish turn in US policy.
"Since 1971, Dr. Kissinger has visited China more than 100 times," CCTV said on Thursday.
"On May 27 this year, the legendary diplomat celebrated his 100th birthday, and this visit is also his first trip to China since turning 100," it added.
State news agency Xinhua reported him as telling defence minister Li Shangfu on Tuesday: "Kissinger said in today's world, challenges and opportunities coexist, and both the United States and China should eliminate misunderstandings, coexist peacefully, and avoid confrontation."
Kissinger also met on Wednesday with top diplomat Wang Yi, who praised Kissinger's "historic contributions to the ice-breaking development of China-US relations".
"The US policy toward China needs Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom and Nixon-style political courage," Wang said.
