Word: sovietizers
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...Soviet Union, which has historically feared the Chinese masses on its southeastern border, would face a neighbor considerably strengthened by a triumphant heresy. Communists everywhere, notably in the Third World, would see an alternative to the failures of Soviet-style Marxism. Many of China's neighbors in the Far East, including Taiwan and South Korea, would find that a political foe had been tamed into a trading partner, while an economic weakling had become a mighty competitor. Most important, perhaps, the U.S. and other Western countries would see the crusading faith that has made the Marxist third of the world...
...foreign policy, the motto under Deng seems to be: try to get along with everyone so that the nation's energies can be concentrated on economic development. China has cautiously resumed trade and cultural exchanges with the Soviet Union. Peking has spared little effort in trying to convince the non-Communist nations of Asia that it intends to be a peaceful neighbor. It stopped aid to Communist rebels in Thailand in the late 1970s, and today disavows any idea of helping those in Malaysia, Indonesia or the Philippines. The only guerrillas China is aiding today are those battling the Soviet...
...matters of economic organization, however, even Lenin was a backslider of sorts. In 1921, when his "war Communism" stirred dangerously strong opposition, he shifted to the New Economic Policy, which sounds almost like a preview of Deng's reforms. Under the N.E.P., the new Soviet state owned and operated only what Lenin called the "commanding heights" of the economy, that is, the basic industries. Peasants could grow and sell privately what they wished after paying a tax in produce to the state; small-scale private enterprise was permitted; foreign capital was invited...
...while Deng intends his reforms to be permanent, Lenin viewed the N.E.P. as a strategic retreat. Stalin put an end to it and launched the Soviet Union on a nearly total collectivization of agriculture and nationalization of industry. Stalin's system became the dominant version of Marxism, if only because the U.S.S.R. for decades was the sole significant officially Marxist state and remains its most powerful...
Oddly, though, the guardians of Marxist purity in Moscow are not making anything like the case against Deng that might be expected. In private, they fear that China will be come an even greater military threat if the reforms succeed. But in public, Soviet journals have noted China's economic progress and expressed only mild doctrinal qualms. The Soviets must avoid name calling if they want to continue smoothing political relations with Peking. Also, suggests an Asian diplomat in Moscow, they "may want to keep their options open in case they decide, five years from now, that they want...