Alex Wong/Getty ImagesHenry Kissinger, a former U.S. secretary of state, at a discussion Wednesday at the Wilson Center in Washington.HONG KONG — The first debate between President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, was focused on domestic issues, though Mr. Romney managed to get in a shot at Beijing when, in his opening statement, he said he would “crack down on China if and when they cheat.”
The remark almost certainly went down badly with Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state and national security adviser who guided President Richard M. Nixon’s effort to reconnect with China 40 years ago.
In remarks Wednesday afternoon before the debate, Mr. Kissinger, who has already endorsed Mr. Romney, said both candidates had been making irresponsible comments about China during the campaign.
“In each country there are domestic pressures that emphasize disagreements that arise, and we see that in our political campaign, in which both candidates are using language that I find extremely deplorable,” Mr. Kissinger said during a panel discussion at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
“Both used the word ‘cheat’ as applied to China, in trade,” Mr. Kissinger added, saying that “theoreticians” unschooled in the nuances of the U.S.-China relationship “want to turn this into a crusade.”
Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, published a story Thursday on Mr. Kissinger’s remarks.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney have come out strongly against alleged Chinese trade violations. The administration recently filed a case with the World Trade Organization saying China was unfairly subsidizing exports of cars and auto parts. It was the ninth such trade action of Mr. Obama’s administration, though Mr. Romney said the new filing, coming so close to the election, amounted to a political stunt.
When asked about Mr. Romney’s frequent attacks on China as a currency manipulator, he said, “The Romney campaign does not check” with him on such statements.
“I’ve stated my general view,” he said. “I remember the Reagan campaign making statements which I didn’t think were adequate to the overall relationship. And Clinton did the same thing.”
In a discussion of China’s political evolution, Mr. Kissinger, 89, noted that strategic analysts in Beijing were “pushing a very nationalistic line, and indeed, as traditional Communist ideology diminishes, there’s the prospect that nationalism becomes a substitute for it.”
Mr. Kissinger was joined on the Wilson Center panel by J. Stapleton Roy, a former U.S. ambassador to China who is vice chairman of Kissinger Associates, Mr. Kissinger’s international consulting firm, which is believed to have major clients in China.
Mr. Kissinger has traveled to China dozens of times, and he wrote a book last year, “On China,” that the New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani found to be “fascinating, shrewd and sometimes perverse.”
Last summer he also appeared at a mass rally in Chongqing with Bo Xilai, the former Politburo member now awaiting trial on criminal charges that include bribery and corruption. In this video on the Web site of the Shanghaiist blog, Mr. Kissinger can be seen (at 2:06) addressing the large crowd, and a smiling Mr. Bo appears with him at the 3-minute mark.
Dealing with China, Mr. Kissinger said, has become “the fundamental problem of American foreign policy right now.” But he also suggested there was a certain unanimity about the general U.S. approach: “The most nonpartisan foreign policy in America today is Chinese policy. Eight American administrations since 1971 have pursued essentially the same course.
“I am very hopeful that this will be continued. Relations with China now are good. There are many grievances on both sides but the basic objective is recognized by both sides.”
“I think peace and stability of the world,” Mr. Kissinger concluded, “depends on that.”