The USSR and the Asia—Pacific Region: Paper II

Abstract

The evolution of Soviet policy towards Asia The historical meeting of Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev in Beijing on 16 May 1989, which, much to the chagrin of Deng, took place under the unexpectedly turbulent circumstances of the developing events in Tiananmen Square, put an end to the 30-year hostility between the two communist giants. From President Gorbachev’s perspective, it was the first significant step in the process of implementing his globalist ‘new thinking’, designed to consolidate the foundation on which he could revitalize the Soviet economy and promote technological development. At the same time, however, because the mass movement in Beijing found its inspiration in Gorbachev’s gospel of perestroika, but ended by being subjugated by force in Tiananmen Square by order of his newly-restored Chinese friends; and because all this happened in circumstances in which the command, control and communications capability of the Chinese leadership came into serious question, to a point at which there appeared a real possibility of civil war breaking out (in a nuclear power) — with obvious problems for strategic stability; the significance of the Sino—Soviet rapprochement may have been seriously undermined, and Gorbachev may well have had reason to revise his ideas of reasonable sufficiency of military capability vis-à-vis his Chinese neighbour.