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PAGE 16
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, SEPTEMBER 2, 1986
with Mongolia to withdraw Soviet troops from Mongolia's border
with China.
"History entrusted the Soviet and the Chinese peoples with an
extremely responsible mission," Gorbachev said.
"Why not
support each other?
Why not cooperate in implementing· our
plans?"
China quickly dismissed the troop withdrawals as
"insignificant," but Gorbachev probably did not expect
immediate Chinese approval.
If the Soviet Union succeeded in restoring the strong party-to
party ties that were broken off during bitter ideological
quarrels, it would have powerful implications for the United
States and the rest of Asia.
Gorbachev knows that China is
hardly likely to relinquish the privileged position in which it
is wooed by both superpowers.
But he knows also that any
rapprochement would undermine the American position in Asia.
As part of his diplomatic offensive Gorbachev is reported to
have agreed to resolve border demarcation disputes in China's
favor and to have offered to train the first Chinese astronaut.
However much China may wish to play them down, the two powers
already have cooperative projects.
Last month � big Chinese
trade exhibition opened in Moscow, the first in 33 years. It
will be matched by a Soviet exhibition in Peking next year.
Also commenting on Moscow's China move was Jerry F. Hough, staff member of
the Brookings Institute in Washington, writing in the August 27 LOS
ANGELES TIMES.
The consequences of the Kremlin's "bold sweep" could
seriously impact the United States, he reported.
In the decade since the death of Mao Tse-tung, Soviet-Chinese
relations have gradually improved, but the process has been
excruciatingly slow.
Now a major breakthrough may be at
hand....
According to
conventional wisdom,
the current
difficulties can be traced to three actions by the Soviet Union:
its invasion of Afghanistan, its support for the Vietnamese
invasion of Cambodia, and its large military presence on its
eastern border. In addition, the border line itself has been in
dispute, with the Chinese claiming that it runs down the main
channel of the Amur and Ussuri rivers, and the Soviets saying
that it runs along the river banks on the Chinese side••••
The real concessions have been made on the border question.
First, Moscow has publicly agreed to the Chinese definition of
the river boundary. If there are no catches, this would give
China a number of islands that were the scenes of bloody battles
in the past. The Amur has already been reopened to commercial
traffic.
The Soviets also have •••agreed to resume the
construction of a railroad from Soviet Central Asia to the
Chinese province of Sinkiang that had been stopped in the early
1960s.
The Chinese are reacting coolly in public to these proposals,
emphasizing the necessity for progress on the Cambodian issue.