Henry Kissinger has
warned of the doomsday potential of the weapons US-China possess as relations
between the 2 superpowers worsen
Tom Porter
May 2, 2021, 2:59 PM·3 min read
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Former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaks during the Department of State 230th
Anniversary Celebration at the Harry S. Truman Headquarters building July 29,
2019 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesMore
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Veteran statesman Henry Kissinger warned of the
dangers of worsening US-China relations.
·
"For the first time in human history, humanity
has the capacity to extinguish itself in a finite period of time,"
Kissinger said.
·
The Biden administration has taken a hawkish approach
towards China.
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Veteran
US statesman Henry Kissinger has offered a stark warning of the apocalyptic
dangers facing the world if conflict erupted between the US and China.
Kissinger
told the McCain Institute's Sedona Forum on global issues Friday that strained
relations with China are "the biggest problem for America, the biggest
problem for the world," reported the AFP.
"Because
if we can't solve that, then the risk is that all over the world, a kind of
cold war will develop between China and the United States."
He
told the forum that while nuclear weapons during the Cold War between the US
and the Soviet Union had had the capacity to inflict vast damage, that capacity
for destruction was exceeded by nuclear technology and artificial intelligence
capabilities the US and China now have at their disposal.
"For
the first time in human history, humanity has the capacity to extinguish itself
in a finite period of time," Kissinger said.
"We
have developed the technology of a power that is beyond what anybody imagined
even 70 years ago."
"And
now, to the nuclear issue is added the high tech issue, which in the field of
artificial intelligence, in its essence is based on the fact that man becomes a
partner of machines and that machines can develop their own judgement," he
said.
"So
in a military conflict between high-tech powers, it's of colossal
significance."
He
said that while the Soviet Union had vast military might during the Cold War,
China had greater economic strength and technological expertise.
"The
Soviet Union had no economic capacity. They had military technological
capacity," he said.
Story continues
"(They)
didn't have developmental technological capacity as China does. China is a huge
economic power in addition to being a significant military power."
Kissinger
served as secretary of state to President Richard Nixon and President Gerald
Ford between 1973 and 1977. He was the architect of the strategy that saw the
US improve its relations with China as part of a bid to drive a wedge between
the country and its erstwhile Communist ally, Russia.
The 97
year-old is regarded as one of the most influential figures in foreign policy
in the last 50 years, though is reviled for some over US military policy during
the Vietnam War and its support of right-wing dictatorships in South America
during the 1970s.
Under President Donald Trump, relations with China worsened,
with the nations imposing a series of economic sanctions on each other. President Joe Biden has maintained the US' hawkish stance
towards China, with a recent meeting between US and Chinese diplomats in Alaska
resulting in mutual recriminations.
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the original article on Business Insider
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