China might proceed to improve its relations with the Soviet Union, says Deng Xiaoping

Deng: Doing his own thingEverything in and about the world seems to be temporary in this decade, even such so-long-permanent conditions like Sino-American friendship and Sino-Soviet hostility. Henry Miller once remarked that people resist only what is inevitable. The Chinese leaders still resist a rapprochement with the USSR - is it because it is inevitable? It is widely known that in both countries there are men in key positions who would like the divide to be bridged and are willing to pay a reasonable price for it. The question is: has their day arrived?For several years now, Americans have warned Americans that the Soviets may also one day play their China card. But now, in the first quarter of 1981, the time has come to ask if the Chinese are getting ready to play their Soviet card. No less a man than Deng Xiaoping wrily signalled in December that China very well could think the unthinkable, even if it were not yet ready to do the undoable. According to Japanese reports, Deng told a visiting Japanese dignitary that if the United States revived the Two China concept and went back on the understanding reached between Washington and Beijing in February 1972 - the Shanghai commuunique issued after Nixon's historic visit - China might proceed to "improve its relations with the Soviet Union".Chinese Opening: The western media played down Deng"s statement though its import was sensational. But Deng himself proceeded to spell out in concrete terms the basic requirements of an improvement in Sino-Soviet relations. Interviewed by Earl W. Foek, editor of the Christian Science Monitor, in December, Deng said: "The Soviet Union must do something real in order to show that it has changed its strategy, that it has given up "hegemonism". For instance, it must reduce its troop levels along the Sino-Soviet border at least to the level of Khrushchev's time. It must withdraw its troops from Mongolia, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia."It is widely known that in both countries there are men in key positions who would like the divide to be bridged and are willing to pay a reasonable price for it. Deng did not ask for the withdrawal of Soviet troops to a specific distance from the border, which had been the position taken during Mao's time. His positive reference to Khrushchev might also have been pregnant with nuances. By posthumously rehabilitating Liu Shaoqi, whom Mao had dubbed "China's Khrushchev", Deng has, in a way, rehabilitated Khrushchev in China. His grievance against Brezhnev is that the Soviet leader has played "hegemonism" more successfully than his predecessor.There have been other, more recent, indications of a Chinese opening to the Soviet Union. Writing in Peking Review of January 12, a Chinese analyst observed, "whether there will be any change in Sino-Soviet relations mainly depends on whether the Soviet Union will change its social-imperialist policy..." Note the word "mainly". The analyst must have deliberately not used the word "entirely". He was evidently signalling a warning to the Reagan Administration that an improvement in Sino-Soviet relations could also depend on how the United States handled the Taiwan issue, which is an extremely sensitive one.Strong Opposition: An article printed in Peking Review of February 2, under the signature of Zheng Bian, the journal's political editor, clearly gives away the fact that a bitter controversy is raging in the Chinese leadership over the entire framework of domestic and foreign policies. He concedes that China is caught in a tightening web of deficit financing, inflation, rising prices and energy shortage. However, he claims that the overall political situation is stabler - "most stable since the '60s". Zheng Bian confirms that China is going through another period of "readjustment" of policies, of economic "slowdown". He declares that China will continue with the policies laid down at the 1978 plenum of the Central Committee of the 11th Party Congress - that is, the four modernisations, but at a slower pace. "We will also adhere to our foreign policy of opposing hegemonism and defending world peace," he adds.This is of course the Chinese way of saying, "We will oppose the Soviet Union and cultivate the cooperation of the United States." But the tone of Zheng Bian's article suggests that this victory of the 1978 policy line is far from final and that there exists within the party leadership strong opposition to it.Anxiety: Whether the opponents of the line will go up or down will depend on how Ronald Reagan handles, the Taiwan issue. The Chinese media has strongly attacked the Taiwan Relations Act passed by the US Congress and approved by Jimmy Carter in the spring of 1980. The Act practically buries the Shanghai communique and revives the Two China concept. In February, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported an anti-China "mudslinging campaign" in the United States, and described as "falsified and fantastic" a document released by the House Foreign Relations Committee on January 18. The document, entitled the "Memorandum on the New Programme of World Revolution" is supposed to be a paper written by Mao and sent to Moscow via Zhou Enlai in March 1957.The Chinese media protested that the publication of the document on the eve of Reagan's inauguration was clearly aimed at influencing the new administration to change America's China policy. China's anxiety and anger was fed by the presence of invited Kuomintang officials at the inauguration. Since then an anti-communist campaign in Taiwan has drawn Beijing's ire. People's Daily called the leaders of Taiwan "national traitors" and "splitters of the motherland".Reasoning: Pressures seem to be building on China from three directions to normalise relations with the Soviet Union. The instability of American friendship, particularly with Reagan in the White House and the strong Taiwan lobby breathing down his neck, strengthens those in the Chinese leadership who favour an opening to Moscow. Secondly, the bleak economic prospects in China and the controversial "capitalist" deviations fan inner-party tensions and generate pressure to normalise relations with the Soviets. Thirdly, the rising military power of the USSR and the increasing use of that power as an instrument of foreign policy puts up the cost of opposing "hegemonism".Now that Brezhnev has used the 26th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party to announce Soviet readiness to negotiate an all-round improvement in relations between the two red leviathans, Sino-Soviet talks, resumed in 1980 only to be broken off after the Russian intervention in Afghanistan, may reopen this year. And the results may not be entirely barren.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 25, 2013 13:17 IST--- ENDS ---

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China might proceed to improve its relations with the Soviet Union, says Deng Xiaoping

For several years now, Americans have warned Americans that the Soviets may also one day play their China card.

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