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"Hegemony" is the Chinese catchall word that denotes the U.S.S.R.'s penchant, especially during the 1970s, for throwing its military weight around in the world. The principal examples -- what Chinese officials call the Three Obstacles to normalization of relations between the two countries -- are the Soviet Union's deployment of more than 50 divisions along the Chinese northern border, its occupation of Afghanistan and its support for Viet Nam's occupation of Kampuchea. Gorbachev, who is eager to hold a summit with the 83- year-old Deng, has been making, or at least hinting at, concessions on all three issues. Last year the Kremlin removed one division from the Mongolian People's Republic, a Soviet satellite on China's border. In May Moscow began bringing its forces home from Afghanistan. The Soviets have also been nudging Hanoi to withdraw from Kampuchea.
Chinese officials, especially those in the military, remain skeptical. General Jiang Hongji, a retired divisional commander and former military attache in Moscow, says the Soviet pullback "doesn't count for too much in a military sense," since the division that was withdrawn could return on short notice. General Chai Chengwen, first deputy chairman of the Beijing Institute for International Strategic Studies (BIISS), a think tank connected with the National Defense Ministry, says, "The Soviet Union is looking for excuses to delay its withdrawal from Afghanistan." From Deng on down, Chinese spokesmen say that Kampuchea, still occupied by Moscow's Vietnamese allies, remains the main obstacle.
Nonetheless, General Chai predicts that "if the Soviets continue their domestic reforms and accompanying adjustments in foreign policy, eventually the Three Obstacles will be eliminated and Sino-Soviet relations will be normalized." That could mean, he says, not only a Deng-Gorbachev summit but an exchange of high-level military visits as well. Americans, he adds, should not be alarmed: "For Sino-Soviet relations to be transformed into a more moderate and relaxed state would benefit all humanity."
Cheng Feng, a strategic-affairs expert at BIISS, offers similar reassurances. "You Americans seem to think that Sino-Soviet normalization would be a kind of hell for you, that it's a terrible beast lurking out there in the future," he says. "You shouldn't worry. We've had several hundred years' experience with the Russians. You can rest assured that we will be realistic in our dealing with them now."
Meanwhile, the view from Red Square is optimistic. A foreign policy official of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee predicts that Gorbachev will visit Beijing by 1990: "Two years to remove the two remaining obstacles -- that is a challenge for us, but one we can meet." If so, traveling salesmen will have paved the way for the General Secretary.