„Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made prudent remarks recently when he said the United States is no longer a uni-power and that it must recognize the reality of China as an equal rival.

The furor over a new law passed by the US this week regarding Hong Kong and undermining Beijing’s authority underlines Kissinger’s warning.

If the US cannot find some modus vivendi with China, then the outcome could be a catastrophic conflict worst than any previous world war, he admonished.

Speaking publicly in New York on November 14, the veteran diplomat urged the US and China to resolve their ongoing economic tensions cooperatively and mutually, adding: “It is no longer possible to think that one side can dominate the other.”

A key remark made by Kissinger was the following: “So those countries that used to be exceptional and used to be unique, have to get used to the fact that they have a rival.”

In other words, he is negating the erroneous consensus held in Washington which asserts that the US is somehow “exceptional”, a “uni-power” and the “indispensable nation”. This consensus has grown since the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the US viewed itself as the sole super-power. That morphed into a more virulent ideology of “full-spectrum dominance”. Thence, the past three decades of unrelenting US criminal wars and regime-change operations across the planet, throwing the whole world into chaos.

Kissinger’s frank assessment is a breath of fresh air amid the stale and impossibly arrogant self-regard held by too many American politicians who view their nation as an unparalleled power which brooks no other.

The seasoned statesman, who is 96-years-old and retains an admirable acumen for international politics, ended his remarks on an optimistic note by saying: “I am confident the leaders on both sides [US and China] will realize the future of the world depends on the two sides working out solutions and managing the inevitable difficulties.“

But US exceptionalism is catalyzed by Trump´s America first policy worse than before. All hope for a Trump-Xi deal. However, Trump is not the peaceful businessman who just wants to get a small deal about trade issues, but a deal that makes America No.1 and China No.2 in the long term. But the question is if there is not also Chinese exceptionalism as China now claims that it was the world power for centuries and the world civilization with 5000 year`s hegemony about the barbarians till the West interrupted its exceptionalism by some unequal treaties and a short period of 100 years of national humiliation. The only hope is that Xi will make some tactical compromises to Trump in order to become the No.1 in the midterm and longterm. Nothing more and nothing less. And as I always try to point out Trump will even start a Sino-American war about this issue if reelected and if Xi doesn´t accept his conditions. And the US opposition`? If you have a closer look they all try to outperform themselves in China-bashing and Joe Biden and Kissinger even get critizised for being soft on China. It´s an election competition who is the best US exceptionalist and the best Chinabasher. Kissinger´s book On China warned of a new Crowe memorandum. But the trends in the USA are going in this direction and Kissinger is blamed by the right for his policy that made China strong, betrayed Vietnam and Taiwan and also antisemitic conspiracy theories are aired by the Trump faction. Brzezinski and Thomas Barnett who had the idea of a G2 are now as Kissinger or Joe Biden seen as traitors for the US exceptionalism and Manchurian candidates of China as Trump tries to portray the Democrats as Manchurian candidates of China as they try to portray him as Manchurian candidate of Putin-Russia. . But the main problem remains: Two exceptionalisms are confronting each other.