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Kissinger backs Clinton for top US cabinet job

Henry Kissinger, the former senior US statesman, yesterday gave his firm backing to Hillary Clinton as the next US Secretary of State in the forthcoming Democratic administration.

“The critical challenge is to prevent Pakistan from becoming a failed state. To have a failed state with nuclear weapons would be a tremendous challenge to the international system, ” Mr Kissinger said.

The former diplomat and Harvard professor also predicted that China would increasingly challenge the US as the world’s strongest single country, but warned that Beijing could be overtaken by nationalism. “[China is mounting] a challenge to non-military capabilities,” he said.

“What we need to avoid is a generation of Chinese that grow up believing that it is in the interest of the West to hold them down. We should not generate an assertive nationalism to substitute for the declining influence of the Communist leadership.”