On China

• Author: Todd Kline
• Position: Judge Advocate, U.S. Navy
• Pages: 130-139

130 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 210

ON CHINA1

REVIEWED BY LIEUTENANT COMMANDER TODD KLINE*

We cannot enter into alliance with neighboring princes

until we are acquainted with their designs.2

I. Introduction

On July 9, 1971, in the midst of the Cold War and the latter days of

the Vietnam Conflict, a delegation of American officials arrived in

Beijing on a secret mission. The goal: to explore the opening of formal

diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China.3 As National

Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon and leader of the team,

Henry Kissinger4 was in a unique position to directly observe and

participate at the inception of the United States’ formal relationship with

the most populous communist country on the planet.5

In On China, Kissinger applies his version of realpolitik6 to U.S.–

Chinese political relations; a subject made timely by China’s more recent

economic and military ascendancy. He asserts that China’s foreign policy

is based on pragmatic self-interest and that any effort to gain insight into

China’s modern and future diplomatic strategy must “begin with a basic

* Judge Advocate, U.S. Navy. Student, 60th Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course,

The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, U.S. Army, Charlottesville,

Virginia.

1 HENRY KISSINGER, ON CHINA (2011).

2 SUN TZU WU, THE ART OF WAR (The Military Service Publishing Co., 1957).

3 KISSINGER, supra note 1, at 236–37; WALTER ISAACSON, KISSINGER 339–45 (1992).

4 WALTER ISAACSON, KISSINGER 135–53, 502–10 (1992) (Kissinger served as National

Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon from January 20, 1969, to November 3,

1975, and Secretary of State under President Nixon and President Gerald Ford from

September 22, 1973, to January 20, 1977.); ROBERT DALLECK, NIXON AND KISSINGER

515–16 (2007) (Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1973 for his role in

ending the Vietnam Conflict).

5 KISSINGER, supra note 1, at 236–37.

6 HENRY KISSINGER, DIPLOMACY 137 (1994). The author defines realpolitik as “foreign

policy based on calculations of power and the national interest.” As the most well-known

adherent of realpolitik, Kissinger’s application eschews national strategy based wholly or

in part on philosophical, ideological, or ethical principles in favor of practical

considerations of national security and projection of State power. “In paraphrasing

Goethe, Kissinger states that ‘If I had to choose between justice and disorder, on the one

hand, and injustice and order, on the other, I would always choose the latter,’ as ‘Moral

crusaders . . . made dangerous statesmen.’” ISSACSON, supra note 4, at 653.