Polish Record of Soviet alliance Meeting in Moscow, February 1980

Secret

Note

On February 26, 1980, a meeting took place in Moscow of the representatives of fraternal parties of six socialist countries…including the heads of International Departments of these parties…The meeting was devoted to the international situation and conclusions emanating from it…

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…All delegations took a uniform position on Beijing's policy.

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[Excerpts from the statement of the Polish representative, Andrzej Werblan]

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7. Imperialist policies have intensified in the area of armament and tensions and have found a clear and loyal ally in China. Currently, the PRC leadership is conducting an open course of aggression. The most vivid reflection of this is [the PRC's] attack on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Currently, China cooperates with organizing a military diversion against the progressive government of Afghanistan. We fully agree with Soviet comrades' assessment of Beijing's politics. We see the need to actively unmask, and especially to reveal to the public, the damaging aspects of the alliance between Beijing and the cold war forces of the United States and the FRG. Recently, we have developed a pretty good [study] center to investigate these issues which will provide materials for the ideological and propaganda work.

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[Excerpts from the statement of Boris Ponomarov]

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The US decisions to restore the most favored nation status to China could lead to accelerated economic ties between China and the US…The most important thing is that the US is ready to increasingly sell strategic goods to China. All of this, in addition to a slew of political and diplomatic contacts, testifies to Washington and Beijing's willingness and intentions to coordinate their efforts which go against détente, the socialist commonwealth, and the national-liberation movement.

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…China aspires to take as much advantage as possible from the current world situation. Their leadership is clearly not interested in improving relations with the USSR. The talks in Moscow fully reflect this trend. The goals we may have reached on single issues, do not provide any basis for future progress in our relations with the PRC.

In China, another round of a harsh internal power struggle has matured and will transform into a great card shuffle in the army, party, and administration. According to our information, Deng Xiaoping's group, which is supported by the West, has currently the advantage. We cannot exclude the possibility of that the West is directly influencing the power struggle in Beijing. We can clearly conclude, however, that the Chinese leadership is not going to improve its policies toward socialist countries. This also means that Beijing will repay the West for their support with a dogged anti-Sovietism. We should thus pay special attention to providing assistance in all areas to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as jointly and strongly counter Beijing's attempts to undermine these countries' positions and fuel the military conflict in Indochina…

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