BEIJING: Chinese leader Xi Jinping met former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in Beijing on Thursday, state media reported.

“On July 20, President Xi Jinping met former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse,” state broadcaster CCTV said, hailing the 100-year-old statesman’s central role in opening up relations between China and the United States in the 1970s.

Kissinger, then US national security advisor, secretly flew to Beijing in July 1971 on a mission to establish relations with communist China.

That trip set the stage for a landmark visit by president Richard Nixon, who sought both to shake up the Cold War and enlist help in ending America’s war in Vietnam.

Washington’s overtures to an isolated Beijing contributed to China’s rise to become a manufacturing powerhouse and the world’s largest economy after the United States.

Since leaving office, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kissinger has grown wealthy advising businesses on China – and has warned against a hawkish turn in US policy.

“Since 1971, Dr. Kissinger has visited China more than 100 times,” CCTV said on Wednesday.

“On May 27 this year, the legendary diplomat celebrated his 100th birthday, and this visit is also his first trip to China since turning 100,” it added.