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Chinese Foreign Policy in 1970: The Tilt Towards the Soviet Union

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Extract

It has become conventional wisdom that the U.S.–China rapprochement was a result (from the Chinese side) of Beijing's fear of the Soviet Union. Specifically, the Warsaw Pact occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and the border confrontation which developed rapidly in the months after the clashes at Zhen Bao island on the Ussuri River in March 1969, are seen as exacerbating Chinese fears of Soviet attack.1 These fears had emerged during the Cultural Revolution when Moscow began insinuating that it might intervene in China in support of the anti-Maoist, “healthy forces.” 2 It was in hopes of deterring possible Soviet invasion, surgical strike, or intervention – so the argument runs – that Beijing wanted to improve relations with Washington. By establishing more cordial relations between Beijing and Washington, the risks which Moscow would assume in making a decision to attack China would be increased. Soviet-American détente would, conceivably, be endangered. The possibility of a Soviet-American confrontation arising out of such a Soviet attack on China could not be ruled out. This added increment of uncertainty about the U.S. response to a Soviet attack on China would be useful in preventing such an attack. Thus, it is concluded, in November 1968 Beijing moved to reopen the talks with the U.S. at Warsaw as a first step towards substantially improving Sino-American relations. Two years after the clashes at Zhen Bao the U.S. table tennis team arrived in Beijing in April 1971. A snowballing series of events rapidly unfolded, culminating in the 15 July 1971 announcement of Henry Kissinger's visit to China and President Nixon's impending visit

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1980

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References

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5. Dillon, Linda D., Burton, Bruce and Soderlund, Walter C., “Who was the principal enemy?: shifts in official Chinese perceptions of the two superpowers, 1968–1969,Asian Survey, Vol. XVII, No. 5 (05 1977), p. 471Google Scholar. Dillon, et al. have no explanation for the reversal of quantitative emphasis in October 1969.

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9. By the terms of the treaty the Soviet Union agreed to respect the status quo of Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the East European countries – which it had previously refused to do because those countries recognized the German Democratic Republic. Both sides agreed that the existing territorial status quo in Europe would be “respected” and both sides renounced any territorial claims in Europe. Bonn did, however, maintain the right of the German people to reunify their country.

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17. Zhou's visit to Pyongyang in April 1970 was part of a warming of Sino-North Korean relations which had begun in October 1969 when a North Korean delegation flew to Beijing at the last minute to participate in China's National Day ceremonies. Relations between Beijing and Pyongyang had become very strained during the Cultural Revolution when Red Guards attacked Kim Il-sung as a revisionist. There were reports of border incidents and the closing of the border early in 1968. Beijing's ties with Hanoi became strained in May 1968 When the Vietnamese decided to begin the negotiations proposed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Beijing objected to this move, counselling Hanoi to instead refuse the negotiations and continue waging a protracted guerrilla war. It was not until July 1971 that Beijing finally supported the NLF's and North S Vietnamese's peace negotiations proposals, thereby implicitly approving of Vietnamese participation in those negotiations. During 1970 Beijing went to great lengths to convince Hanoi and Pyongyang of China's support for their struggles against the U.S. There were frequent exchanges of delegations and visits by high level personnel, Chinese statements of support, joint ceremonies of various sorts – including the commemoration of the start of the Korean War in June 1970 and the sponsorship of the Summit Conference of the Indo-Chinese People's in April 1970 – aid agreements, and so forth.

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45. Geoffrey Hudson has pointed out that the period of maximum danger for a developing nuclear power is at that point at which it is just on the threshold of acquiring an effective nuclear strike capability, but does not yet have such a capability, and thus had no strategic deterrent. At that point there is great temptation for superior nuclear powers who feel threatened by the developing nuclear power to seek to “cripple” the further development of the lesser power's nuclear capability and preserve the existing status quo. See Paper Tigers and Nuclear Teeth,” The China Quarterly (CQ), No. 39 (0712 1969), p. 64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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59. Ibid. No. 4762, p. 140. On 13 October Tolstikov presented his credentials to Deng Biwu and “had a talk” with Deng and Vice-foreign minister Jiao Guanhua. SCMP, No. 4764, p. 142.

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87. It is interesting to note that both the Chinese and U.S. governments have an interest in the acceptance of the view that a Soviet threat to China underlies the Sino-American rapprochement. From the vantage point of both capitals such a view helps justify a “U.S. policy” and a “China policy” respectively which has come under attack from certain domestic critics. It also has the advantage of helping to rally diverse forces to the anti-Russian front, both internationally and domestically.