Brzezinski and his insightful wisdom will be missed

The passing of Zbigniew Brzezinski last week came as a shock because a little more than a month ago he was still making public appearances and commenting on the Korean Peninsula issue. In the past week, many of my Chinese journalist friends who had interviewed him or attended his lectures recalled on WeChat Moments their fond memories of the great strategist.

For many of us, Brzezinski was a man of wisdom with a great understanding of the world and China. As the US national security advisor in the Jimmy Carter administration, Brzezinski played a key role in the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China in 1979.

He enjoyed a friendly relationship with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. I heard Brzezinski mention that friendship several times, including at a film show last November at the Meridian International Center in Washington where the documentary, Mr Deng Goes to Washington, chronicling Deng's historic visit to the US in January 1979, was screened.