Countering Soviet Encirclement } 343
public opinion, cut West European defense budgets, and “heighten contradic-
tions” within NATO.
The second instrument used by Beijing to nudge Germany toward greater
vigilance against the Soviet Union was invitation diplomacy.^60 Beijing sought
to give weight to anti-détente views of the CSU/CDU by inviting that par-
ty’s leaders to China and, of course, highlighting their anti-détente views.
Even though the SDP was the FRG’s ruling party during the mid-1970s, seven
top CDU leaders visited Beijing compared to only three top SDP and Free
Democratic Party leaders. Often CSU/CDU leaders were received shortly be-
fore SDP leaders, undercutting the perceived gravity of the second, apparently
follow-on visit of the SDP leaders. CSU president Franz Joseph Strauss, an
outspoken critic of Willy Brandt’s foreign and defense policies, was Beijing’s
honored and frequent guest. During a January 1975 visit by Strauss, he was the
first FRG leader to be received by Mao. This was only several months before
a visit by SPD Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (who followed Brandt as head of
the FRG government from 1974 to 1982) was scheduled to visit Beijing. During
Strauss’s visit, portrait posters of him were hung around Beijing—leading
one wit to observe that he was one of only three Germans to be so honored,
the other two being Marx and Engels. Chancellor Schmidt’s visit had to be
delayed until assurances could be secured that he, too, would be allowed to
meet Mao. That is, Schmidt’s treatment in Beijing would be no less than that
accorded Strauss. Even then, Schmidt’s reception was noticeably cool. The
day after Schmidt landed in Beijing, an editorial in Renmin ribao welcomed
him; Europe was the focus of superpower contention, the editorial informed
Schmidt:
Especially that superpower which is chanting peace psalms most loudly
has become even more truculent and is baring its fangs, particularly
towards Europe. It has stationed massive forces in Central Europe and
is intensifying its efforts to encircle the whole of Western Europe ... thus
constituting an increasingly grave military menace to the ... security of
European countries.^61
In his toast welcoming Schmidt, Deng Xiaoping made the same point in
more poetic language:
The trees may prefer calm but the wind will not subside ... It is now
evident that the superpower most zealously preaching detente and
disarmament is ... stepping up arms expansion and war preparations,
maintaining an offensive posture far exceeding its defence needs and
posing a threat to the people of Europe and the whole world ... people
must heighten their vigilance, get prepared ... otherwise they will suffer
greatly.^62