Former U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger warned on Friday that the tension between the United States and China threatens the entire world and could lead to an unprecedented conflict between the two military and technological giants. The Secretary of State during President Richard Nixon's administration, who was instrumental in the historic rapprochement between Washington and Beijing in the 1970s, stated that the immense economic, military, and technological capabilities of both superpowers make the current tension more perilous than that experienced during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Kissinger, who is 97 years old, said at a forum hosted by the think tank "Mackin Institute" that this is "the greatest problem for the United States and the greatest problem for the world as a whole." He clarified that although the risk of a nuclear conflict was significant during the Cold War, advances in nuclear weapons technology, particularly in artificial intelligence—areas led by the U.S. and China—have multiplied the risk of a world-ending scenario.
He stated, "For the first time in history, humanity has the capacity for self-destruction in a limited amount of time," adding that "we have developed technologies with power that was unimaginable seventy years ago." He continued that "the nuclear issue is now added to the technological issue, which, in the realm of artificial intelligence, is based on the reality that humans become partners with machines and that machines can develop their own judgment," considering this as "extremely significant in a military conflict between two major technological powers."
Kissinger believes this situation cannot be compared to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II. He noted that "the Soviet Union was not an economic power and had military technological capacity," pointing out that the Soviet Union "did not have the technological development that China has today, which possesses immense economic power in addition to its large military strength."
Kissinger stated that the United States must remain firm on its principles and demand that China respect them while maintaining ongoing dialogue and finding areas for cooperation with Beijing.
