China: Keeping Their Equidistance

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While relations between China and the Soviet Union have shown signs of a thaw in the past year, the U.S. still considers itself the first among superpowers in Peking. That assumption got a jolt last week when an article in the Chinese journal Red Flag attacked U.S. foreign policy and declared that China may embark on a policy of maintaining an "equal distance" from the two superpowers.

In the past, the Chinese have rejected the notion of "equidistance," thereby implying that they intended to have warmer relations with the U.S. The Red Flag article, however, was reprinted last week in the English-language China Daily, widely regarded as one of Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping's main conduits for sending messages to Western powers. "Anyone reading that article would think that the U.S. is an equal threat to them and to world peace," said one dismayed Western diplomat. Whatever the reasons, Peking seemed to be putting the U.S. on notice that its most-favored-superpower status cannot be taken for granted.