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Soviet Union [USSR] China
In the 1950s, the Soviet Union claimed half of China's foreign
trade. The political rift that developed between the two countries
in the late 1950s culminated in 1960 with the withdrawal of more
than 1,000 Soviet specialists from China and an official break in
trade relations in 1964. Although it had been only an observer,
China stopped attending Comecon sessions in 1961. Economic
relations between the Soviet Union and China resumed in 1982.
Primarily as a result of Soviet political concessions and pressures
on the Chinese to expand trade, trade volume between the two
countries increased tenfold between 1982 and 1987.
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union proved to be an ideal trade
partner for China. China's exports were not competitive on the
world market, and its foreign currency reserves were severely
depleted by record foreign trade deficits in 1984 and 1985.
Likewise, the Soviet Union, producing dated technology that was
difficult to market in more industrially advanced countries and
acquiring a growing hard-currency debt, eagerly pursued the Chinese
market. Each country would sell the other goods it could not market
elsewhere, and each could conserve scarce hard currency by
bartering. The Soviet Union possessed machinery, equipment, and
technical know-how to help China develop its fuel and mineral
resources and power, transportation, and metallurgical industries.
China could offer a wealth of raw materials, textiles, and
agricultural and industrial consumer goods.
Stepped-up economic relations reflected Soviet flexibility in
overcoming various political and administrative stumbling blocks.
By mid-1988 Gorbachev was speaking of reducing Soviet troops on the
Chinese border, Vietnam had removed half of its troops from
Cambodia, and Soviet troops had begun their withdrawal from
Afghanistan
(see Soviet Union USSR - Sino-Soviet Relations
, ch. 10). Reforms of the
Soviet foreign trade complex established
free trade zones (see Glossary) in the Soviet Far East and
Soviet Central Asia,
simplifying border trade between the two countries. Soviet trade
officials persuaded the Chinese to expand business ties beyond
border trade into joint ventures, coproduction contracts, and the
export of surplus Chinese labor to the Soviet Union. The Peking
Restaurant in Moscow, specializing in Chinese cuisine, became the
first joint venture between the Soviet Union and China. In April
1988, China's minister of foreign economic relations and trade,
Zheng Toubin, stated that China would continue to expand trade with
the Soviet Union ""at a rapid pace,"" thus rewarding Soviet
persistence in expanding trade with China.
Data as of May 1989
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