Word: sino
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That menacing statement, issued by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qi Huaiyuan last week, was not a threat of out-and-out war. But neither was it idle propaganda. In a steadily escalating exchange of artillery fire across the Sino-Vietnamese border, China made it clear that it was prepared to retaliate against what it saw as Vietnamese provocation along the countries' common 800-mile border. More important, the cross-border incidents were part of a Chinese effort to intimidate Viet Nam at a time when the Hanoi government was stepping up its offensive against the rebels who oppose Viet...
Diplomats in Peking generally agreed that China was not on the verge of "teaching Viet Nam a second lesson," as it had been threatening to do off and on since the four-week-long Sino-Vietnamese war of February and March 1979. At that time, China had justified its brief invasion of Viet Nam as a "lesson" designed to discourage the Vietnamese from engaging in any more troublemaking along the border. But for the past several weeks, the Chinese have been upset about Vietnamese attacks on Kampuchean refugee camps located along the border between Kampuchea and Thailand. The Chinese were...
Peking's growing estrangement from Washington has been accompanied by timid but worrisome steps toward rapprochement with Moscow. Although the major Sino-Soviet disputes are still unresolved, trade between the two nations is increasing and the first Soviet tourists in two decades will be allowed in China this year. Small symbols of ties with the U.S.S.R. have been highlighted in the Chinese press. Said one Western diplomat in Peking: "The Soviets have a golden opportunity, in that Sino-U.S. relations right now are going nowhere." With some irritation, Washington officials point out that the 1982 communique that envisioned...
...that Taiwan has all the strengths that Red China is missing, and that U.S. Taiwanese relations are too important to be jeopardized by ties with the mainland. They argue that the communists are erratic and untrustworthy--too unreliable to be allies. Yet such an attitude neglects the weight good Sino-American relations have already had in world affairs--such as the force China lent to world outcry against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In addition, denigrating the importance of mainland China ignored the possibility that its natural resources and fairly well-controlled masses could propel it to a position...
...officials are treating the slow courtship "with dignified calm," in the words of a U.S. official. Experts in Washington express confidence that enduring conflicts of interest, notably over Afghanistan and Kampuchea, will limit any new Sino-Soviet friendship. Says a U.S. analyst: "We don't really see these two agreeing on anything very significant. But we sure don't want them to, either." Even if the Soviets and the Chinese move closer, there will be plenty of warning. "The U.S. does not have to panic or go courting cravenly," says a U.S. diplomat. "We expect no dramatic changes...