Etienne Manac’h, reporting on a thaw in relations between China and Hungary, suggests that the PRC seeks "a greater zone of autonomy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe."

Pierre Cerles provides an assessment of Chinese foreign policy toward Eastern Europe during the 1960s within the context of the Sino-Soviet split, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Cultural Revolution, and China's own internal leadership divisions.