Rana Mitter's BBC Radio 3 Night Waves interview with former US Secretary of State Dr Kenry Kissinger was well worth tuning into, albeit that Mitter's questioning was rather loud and Kissinger's replies rather quiet.The interview on China, also the name of a book which Kissinger has just had published on this subject, focused on the Mao Zedong years, although there were also some rather chilling comments on current US-China relations.
Asked by Mitter if he was an admirer of Mao Zedong, Kissinger responded that he admired the former Chinese leader's grasp of strategy, both at home and in international affairs, but deplored the oppression and genocides of Mao's regime.
However, although Mao is widely regarded as one of the architects of modern China, Kissinger said that he and his contemporaries in the early 1970s could not have imagined the magnitude of the country's transformation over the next twenty five years.
The interview sounded a cautionary note about the future of US-China relations, with references to Britain and Germany in the early twentieth century. Let's hope the current G8 Summit meeting in France keeps this in mind.
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