Kissinger not pictured in Beijing today.
This definitely isn’t Henry Kissinger’s first trip to China. The former US Secretary of State is back in the capital and has just paid a visit to Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), China’s top search engine company.
Kissinger first came to China in 1971 in secret – and met with Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong (pictured) – ahead of the ground-breaking 1972 summit with President Nixon between the two nations. It’s immortalized superbly by the John Adams opera Nixon in China.
This time, Kissinger – author of On China – met with the founder and CEO of Baidu, Robin Li (pictured below). During an hour-long discussion, we’re told, Kissinger and Li touched on “how Chinese Internet users consume online books” and even broached the broader subject of Sino-US relations. No word on whether the biggest bone of contention right now between the two nations – NSA whistleblower and very brief Hong Kong resident Edward Snowden – cropped up.
Kissinger was also given a demonstration of some Baidu products, such as Baidu image search and Baidu Maps.
(Editing by Willis Wee)
