An institution dedicated to promoting U.S.-China relations was inaugurated in Washington on Tuesday, nearly 40 years after former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's historic visit to China. “China and America no longer have a common enemy, but a common opportunity, " Kissinger said in a speech at the launch of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. “China and the United States have an opportunity to help lead the world on common policies.” “An adversarial relationship between the United States and China is unfortunate for the whole world; positive relations are beneficial to everybody, " said Kissinger, whose secret visit to China in 1971 marked the beginning of a slow rapprochement between the two countries. The mission of the Kissinger Institute is to improve each country's knowledge about the other, mainly through academic exchanges, the Woodrow Wilson International Center research institute, which houses the Kissinger Institute, said in a statement. The Kissinger Institute would help to “inspire more people to join in the worthy cause of advancing China-U.S. relations and strengthen the voice of those calling for stronger relations between China and the United States,” visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said.
