33. THE OTHER CONTINENT: ASIA
The Soviet preoccupation in international affairs remained with policy
towards America and Western Europe, and talks with the American
President trumped everything. Not until the winter of 1988–1989 did
Gorbachëv and Shevardnadze widen their angle of attention in Asia
beyond troubled Afghanistan. Though Gorbachëv had given a big
speech in Vladivostok about the Pacific region in July 1986, he also
told the Politburo that December: ‘Civilization in the twenty-first
century will move to the East.’^1 He wanted to be on friendly terms with
Asian countries which in the past had been enemies of Moscow. Con-
frontation merely squandered resources and peace was anyway his
priority. Gorbachëv wanted to renew the USSR’s status as a Eurasian
power. Shevardnadze agreed with all this but felt that too little pro-
gress was being achieved, and he tried to push him to do more than
issue formal declarations of intent. In July 1987 he urged the need to
offer to withdraw a hundred nuclear missiles from the USSR’s Asian
territory.^2 In his opinion, Soviet leaders had to give definite proof to
China and Japan that their plans for disarmament were not restricted
to America and Europe. A unilateral initiative could help towards this
end.
Gorbachëv refused to be rushed, for the Chinese question was
fraught with dilemmas. Deng Xiaoping made no secret of his
scepticism about the Soviet perestroika; and Gorbachëv in any case
was wary about jeopardizing his ties with Washington by becoming
over-friendly with Beijing.^3 He also worried about the USSR’s security.
While agreeing on the complete removal of medium-range nuclear
missiles from Europe, he kept a hundred of them on its Asian terri-
tory. Until the Soviet Union and China began to cooperate, he and the
Politburo wanted to keep a nuclear deterrent force near the long and
contested border.^4 The Chinese remained proud, suspicious and
implacable. It was therefore up to the Soviet leadership to make the
first move. In early December 1988 Shevardnadze welcomed China’s