Begin by remembering who the author of this book is. Henry Kissinger, most familiar to Americans as Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, is, even if we ignore Christopher Hitchens' allegation that he is a "war criminal," nonetheless a profoundly problematic character, especially on the subject of China.
For one thing, he is chairman of Kissinger Associates, an international political consulting firm based in New York City and counting among its clients some of the biggest American companies doing business in China. So the man clearly has a financial incentive to relate a version of Chinese affairs conducive to the interests of these companies -- the very ones that have been offshoring American jobs and worsening America's trade balance through their imports.
Anyone naïve enough to imagine that all this doesn't make any difference probably shouldn't be reading books about politics in the first place.
Furthermore, Dr. Kissinger is demonstrably a man of appallingly callous moral judgment, most notoriously exemplified by his (since apologized for) statement that "if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern." (He is himself not only Jewish but a refugee from Hitler; if you figure this one out, please explain it to me.)
This callousness shows clearly in his new book on China -- which is, after all, the nation with the largest number of exterminated citizens in the 20th century. Although obviously well-aware of the 30 million or so victims of the Chinese Communist Party, he confines his outrage to the laconic remark that for some people, "the tremendous suffering Mao inflicted on his people will dwarf his achievements."
After all, Mao united a nation previously riven by warlords and revolutionaries, and made China a superpower. Too bad about the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Bad things happen.
Kissinger is similarly ambivalent about the Tiananmen massacre. One must understand the situation autocrats are put in by these things...
Read more at The Huffington Post
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