Normalization with the Asian Powers } 433
Even then, the diplomatic battle over Vietnam and Cambodia contin-
ued. Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze arrived in Beijing in
early December 1988 to work out details of Gorbachev’s upcoming visit.
Shevardnadze was the first Soviet foreign minister to visit China since
Gromyko’s 1958 visit in the midst of the Taiwan Strait crisis. Qian and
Shevardnadze held three rounds of talks. The crux of each was Cambodia.
Shevardnadze was unwilling to set a date for Vietnam’s withdrawal from
Cambodia. Moscow could not simply give orders to Hanoi, Shevardnadze
said. Shevardnadze went home without agreement. He returned two
months later, in February 1989, to try again. The Soviet foreign minister
proposed May 15–18 as the date of Gorbachev’s visit and suggested that it
be announced in a joint statement. Shevardnadze was unwilling, however,
to give a specific date for a Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia. Qian
consulted with Deng on the issue. Deng said that while the actual date for
the Gorbachev meeting could not be changed, the announcement of that
date was a tactical matter to be decided by Qian. Qian used this flexibility
to press his advantage. When Shevardnadze met Deng the next day, the
Soviet envoy tried to maneuver Deng into agreeing to the May 15–18 date,
but Deng sidestepped the Soviet snare and told Shevardnadze to settle the
issue with Qian. Shevardnadze went to the airport to return home, but
repeatedly delayed his departure while Qian lingered in the airport’s wait-
ing room. Gorbachev’s summit with Deng and the full normalization of
Sino-Soviet relations were in the balance. Qian says he hung tough. China
had not expected such difficulties, Qian told Shevardnadze. The Soviet side
had proposed issuing a joint communiqué, and the Chinese side had agreed.
Now Shevardnadze refused to include in the communiqué a specific date
for a Vietnamese withdrawal. Sino-Soviet relations were still not normal-
ized, Qian said. Eventually Shevardnadze agreed to leave behind two Soviet
MFA department heads to continue the talks. The next day, according to
Qian’s account, those representatives agreed to a joint statement giving a
date for Vietnam’s withdrawal from Cambodia.
The joint statement issued on February 6, 1989, regarding Cambodia pro-
vided that Beijing and Moscow “take note of the decision announced by
Vietnam to withdraw all its troops from Kampuchea by the end of September
1989 at the latest.” The joint statement expressed hope that this decision would
be implemented and declared the willingness of the two countries “to make
efforts to help attain this objective.” The two sides differed over the role of the
Khmer Rouge after Vietnam’s withdrawal, but both sides declared in favor
of “non-return to policies and practices of the recent past in Kampuchea,”
called for an “international control mechanism” to organize elections after
Vietnam’s withdrawal, and stated willingness to respect the results of that
election.^12 The dates for Gorbachev’s visit to Beijing were announced the same
day the joint communiqué on Cambodia was issued.