524 { China’s Quest
was not regarded as a good thing internationally, the directive warned CCP
members, and if China rejoiced prematurely it would only isolate itself. This
directive was sent out on August 20, only to be recalled when the coup col-
lapsed two days later.^48 Immediately after the failure of the coup attempt,
Qian Qichen met with the Soviet ambassador in Beijing to say, “We respect
the choice the Soviet people made, and we believe ... the good-neighborly and
friendly relations between China and the Soviet Union will continue to de-
velop on the basis of the principles set forth in the 1989 and 1991 Sino-Soviet
joint communiqués.”^49
It is interesting to consider what might have been the consequences if Deng’s
views had not prevailed and the CCP openly polemicized against Gorbachev’s
“betrayal of the proletariat.” The normalization of ties with Russia would
probably not have been as smooth as it was. It might have been difficult for
Moscow and Beijing to reach the mutual nonaggression agreement they did
in December 1992 and the strategic partnership of several years later. Yeltsin
might have drawn back from Beijing, rather than embrace it as he did. The
cost to China’s relations with the United States could have been even greater.
With anticommunist “End of History” hubris rising in the United States, and
with the debate over MFN–human rights linkage intensifying, if China had
stood vehemently against the (largely) peaceful revolutions and with the mor-
ibund communist regimes of Eastern Europe and Russia, public opinion in
the United States could have taken an even stronger negative swing. In sum,
if Deng’s advice about nei wai you bie had not prevailed, China’s post-6-4 re-
habilitation might have been much more difficult.The Lessons Learned by the CCP from the Soviet CollapseIn the days after the coup collapsed, a series of emergency Politburo meetings
summarized Soviet events. The failure of the coup represented a “counterrev-
olutionary restoration” accomplished by “peaceful evolution” engineered by
hostile Western powers headed by the United States. Gorbachev had made
many mistakes, but among the worst was peddling his New Thinking that
denied class struggle, thereby allowing the growth of antisocialist forces.
Once the coup was set in motion, its leaders did not move resolutely enough
against Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and other counterrevolutionaries. Coup lead-
ers had had blind faith in legal processes and failed to adopt effective means
against Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Coup leaders failed to mobilize enough troops
quickly enough. And there was Western intervention that had emboldened
the anticommunist forces. The United States had even been prepared to send
military forces to support the anti-coup forces, the CCP concluded.^50
A week after the failure of the Soviet coup attempt, the editor of Renmin
ribao, Gao Di, explained the international situation to editors and leading