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Several border areas have been reopened as authorized conduits for commodities. Students, artists, and scholars are beginning to travel in both directions. Between 1960 and 1983 there was no such interchange at all. Visits of successively higher government officials are taking place, now up to Vice Premier, and both sides speak of the possibility of even higher-level visits if conditions improve -
The New Relations between the US and China
The relationship rests on a solid base, one that is more likely to endure without disruptive cycles or misunderstandings. The only potentially serious problem is that of Soviet relations with the United States and with China have, by contrast, been neither as friendly nor as variable as have Sino-American relations. -
Shanghai Communique
The Communique establishing diplomatic relations on December 1978, and the Taiwan Arms Communique of August 1982 -
Chinesse Internal Discussions
It is likely that the Chinese were having their own internal discussions about U.S. policy. There is good evidence, for instance, that the opening to the U.S. was under pressure in debates in Beijing during 1976, and again in 1981-8 -
Public Overtures for Relaxation of Tension
The Soviets were also making public overtures for relaxation of tensions with China, which the Chinese rejected as insincere.ncere. Meanwhile the Soviets had continued and intensified a steady, long-term increase in their troop strength along China's border. Particularly threatening were five divisions in Mongolia, a region of relatively easy geographic access to China's key northern region -
China´s Relations
China's relations with Vietnam deteriorated sharply as major clashes between Vietnam and Cambodia became likely. Vietnam signed a security agreement with Russia, clearly aimed at China. At the same time SALT talks between the U.S. and the Soviets were going well, but the Soviets
were also embarked on opportunistic adventures that were to involve Ethiopia, Angola, Latin America, and later, Afghanistan -
New Incentive Systems
There was remarkable success in China's agricultural sector, beginning with new incentive systems and a restructuring of production into family and co-operative units. Individual farm income more than doubled, and con-
tinues to rise. -
"Teaching Vietnam a Lesson"
China embarked on a course of military pressure
against Vietnam, which it called "teaching Vietnam a lesson," in retaliation for Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia and continued occupation of Laos and was designed to warn the Vietnamese not to go too far in tilting toward the
Soviets and not to exert military pressure on Thailand. It does not seem that the "lesson" or subsequent Chinese military forays into Vietnam have had the desired result. -
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China's Economic Successes
Each year bilateral trade grows by over one billion dollars-this year to over nine billion. Cultural ties, especially in education, continue to expand. More than 17,000 Chinese students are studying in American universities. -
President Reagan's meeting with Premier Z Ziyan
They made a formal and forceful demand in October that the U.S. must set a fixed date for the end of all U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, failing which bilateral relations would be downgraded. raded. It was until August 1982 that an agreement was reached on that subject. -
China´s Offers
China had made a detailed an
rather liberal offer to Taiwan of semi-detached reunification, an offer Beijing hoped would offset American attitudes toward Taiwan and toward the mainland -
Sino-Soviet Relations
As China reassessed its views of the U.S. and of the
Third World, there were signs of a thawing in Sino-Soviet relations. -
Their Differences
There began a slow movement toward substantive discussion of their differences. At the present time we are seeing a series of incremental steps toward more normal relations, cautious on both sides, but adding up to a considerable change from the previous hostility. -
Containing Proposals
General Secretary Gorbachev made a wide ranging foreign and domestic policy speech in Vladivostok, notable chiefly for its conciliatory tone toward China and containing proposals and apparent concessions meant to signal a shift in Soviet attitude -
Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Mongolia
Gorbachev for the first time showed willingness to respond to these three Chinese concerns. Although speaking in ambiguous terms that prompted initial Chinese reactions of great skepticism, Gorbachev touched in one way or another on all of the "obstacles". -
Benchmarks
China had announced three benchmarks for its relations
with the U.S.S.R., terming them the "three obstacles", on which there would have to be Soviet movement before relations could improve substantially