GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
In February 1971 President Nixon + Chairman Mao possessed the vision + desire to bring about a quite significant change in the balance of world politics. And in Henry Kissinger + Zhou Enlai, there existed the skill + patience on both sides to convert vision into reality.
As hostilities, today, in Ukraine become more aggressive, the World is in need in 2022 of an initiative equal in its far-sightedness as that of the Mao/Nixon meeting in 1971.
If Ukraine’s resistance remains stubborn + thwarts Putin’s plans, + presses him to consider the nuclear option, wiser counsels are needed in Washington and Beijing to reset the development of world affairs that includes, as a priority, a resolution of Russian fears of NATO expansion which is at the heart of current tensions between Moscow and Kyiv.
The Chinese leadership will be quicker to see the opportunity than Biden/Blinken. After all, It was Mao who, at the height of the Civil War in China, proposed unity with Kuomintang, to expel Japan from China in World War 2 and it was the Chinese Communist Party who was willing in 1971 to invite Nixon, the arch critic of the Left, to visit Beijing and break the mould of international politics.
But Biden, today, needs his “Nixon” moment. With the 2024 Presidential Election in mind, he needs to outflank Trump and seize the initiative in world affairs.
There may even be an opportunity, however remote, for Beijing to see a way forward with Washington as part of a rebalancing between China, the US and Russia. It’s timely to read Mao Tsetung On Contradiction
#367 – 3 MARCH 2022
