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development of democracy?” Zhao and Gorbachev spoke about “pluralism
of opinions” and about “the fact that democracy can be developed under a
one-party system.” From Zhao’s arguments, Gorbachev noted, “It followed
that the Chinese leadership was prepared to follow the path of political
reform by giving the masses a chance to enjoy broad democratic rights under
one-party rule.” Zhao concluded, “If this did not work out, the issue of a
multi-party system would inevitably arise.”^15 When Zhao drew these conclu-
sions for Gorbachev, he was only several weeks away from being purged for
opposing military suppression of China’s democracy movement.
The Rocky Road to Normalization with India
The high point of PRC-Indian relations during the late Mao era, such as it was,
came atop Tiananmen Gate during the National Day celebration of October
1970 when Mao approached the chargé d’affaires of the Indian mission in
Beijing, Brajesh Mishra, shook hands with him, and said “We cannot go on
quarreling like this. We must become friends again. We will become friends
aga in.”^16 That was about as good as Sino-Indian relations got. Following China’s
threat to enter the 1965 India-Pakistan war, India had protested (in 1966) what
it deemed a Chinese intrusion on Bhutan’s northern border. Bhutan was an
Indian protectorate. In 1967, China and India engaged in an intense armed
clash lasting several days on the Sikkim-Tibet border—simultaneously with
the mounting Sino-Soviet tension on China’s northern border.^17 Beijing pro-
tested several attacks by mobs on its embassy in New Delhi.^18 In 1970, before
Mao’s famous comments to Mishra atop Tiananmen Gate, India had protested
a particularly vicious attack in the Chinese media on Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi, Mishra walked out of a speech by Zhou Enlai to protest Zhou’s decla-
ration of support for the Kashmiri people’s “struggle for self-determination”
(walking out in this fashion was a hardening of Indian policy from previous
practice), and India noted that China was the only country with diplomatic
representation in New Delhi that did not send even token representation to a
celebration of the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.^19 China watched
helplessly as Indian partitioned China’s strategic partner Pakistan in 1971, but
then moved vigorously to assist Pakistan’s rebuilding of its shattered military
strength. China’s help included, as we have seen, assistance with Pakistan’s
nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. India was aligned with the
USSR via its August 1971 treaty and the beliefs of many Indian leaders that the
Soviet Union was the natural ally of the developing countries in their struggle
against the rich Western countries.
China countered Indian moves by supporting other South Asian coun-
tries against India in whatever conflicts of interest came along. India repaid
the favor by hosting 100,000 or so Tibetan refugees, including a Tibetan