518 { China’s Quest
Deng Xiaoping wisely vetoed open polemical struggle against Gorbachev
and his apostasy. But, internally, Deng was clear about the Soviet leader. In
April 1990, Deng told the Politburo, “We must place our hopes in the Soviet
people, place our faith in the broad masses of true Bolshevik party mem-
bers.”^29 Shortly before the failed coup of August 1991, the CCP reportedly
distributed internal guidance saying that the CCP must “unite with the pro-
gressive elements of foreign communist parties, especially the healthy forces
within the Soviet army, the KGB, and the party—and these people should be
invited to visit China.”^30
The CCP used delegation diplomacy to give encouragement and sup-
port to the CPSU’s Marxist-Leninist forces. Beginning in the fall of 1989,
CPSU hard-liners began reaching out to the CCP in an effort to persuade
Gorbachev to discontinue liberalization and put the Soviet house in order
with firm methods like those used in China.^31 As illustrated by Figure 19-1,
from September 1989 through the coup attempt of August 1991, conservative
leaders of the CPSU hard-line faction one after the other traveled to Beijing.
The earliest of these visits was in September 1989 by Anatoly Lukyanov,
a leading conservative opponent of Gorbachev’s and a future leader of the
August 1991 coup. During his China visit, Lukyanov praised China’s model of
reform, adding that the Soviet Union needed “deep insight” into it. The “spe-
cific situations” of China and the USSR differed, Lukyanov, but “one point
is common: no reform is workable without the leadership of the Party.”^32
Regarding the Beijing Massacre, Lukyanov expressed “understanding.”^33
One of the most pointed of the CPSU delegations to China was led by Ivan
Polozkov in June 1991. Polozkov was head of the CPSU organization in the
Russian Republic, a position that made him the direct rival of Boris Yeltsin
once the latter was elected president of the Russian Republic shortly before
Polozkov’s visit. Polozkov’s visit to Beijing coincided with a visit by Yeltsin to
Washington for talks with President Bush. The symbolism was clear: while
Yeltsin looked to Washington, the heirs of Lenin looked to Beijing. Soviet
Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov was in China about the same time as Polozkov.
Yazov’s visit was reportedly against the explicit advice of Gorbachev. Upon
his return to the Soviet Union, Yazov publicized China’s experience, saying it
was worth thorough study.^34
During their own visits to the Soviet Union, CCP leaders bolstered the
CPSU’s healthy forces. Emerging from talks with Lukyanov during his
April 1990 visit to Moscow, Li Peng visited Lenin’s former office, where he
remarked, “full of emotion,” “regrettably, now some people in the world
no longer believe in Leninism.” He then wrote in the guest register: “Great
Lenin will forever encourage us to advance along the road of socialism.”^35
A year later Li Peng told Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh
in Beijing that, while “the methods of building one’s own country and the
kind of road to take are matters which should be decided by the people