TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger advised the incoming Biden administration to quickly restore communication channels with China after several years of diplomatic deterioration under Trump.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the 97-year-old said, “America and China are now drifting increasingly toward confrontation, and they’re conducting their diplomacy in a confrontational way.” He added, “The danger is that some crisis will occur that will go beyond rhetoric into actual military conflict.”

Relations between the U.S. and China have reached a new low during the Trump administration. 

The former diplomat expressed hope that the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic would provide an opportunity for dialogue between the two countries when Biden takes office. Kissinger’s realpolitik methods paved the way for then-President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 and later led to the establishment of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries.