Chinese Premier Plans 1st Soviet Visit Since ’64
Premier Li Peng will visit the Soviet Union April 23-26, becoming the first Chinese head of government to travel to Moscow since 1964, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
The ministry said in a statement that Li “will have an extensive and in-depth exchange of views with Soviet leaders on the bilateral relations and major international issues of common concern.”
Li was invited to visit the Soviet Union last May, when Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev made the first trip to Beijing by a Soviet leader in three decades. Pro-democracy activists in China used the visit to promote their demands for reforms, but the movement was crushed in June.
China’s leaders have since taken a hard-line Communist approach, ignoring Moscow’s reform program of glasnost and perestroika.
Soviet sources said Li will meet twice with Gorbachev in Moscow and will make a one-day trip to Kiev. They said it is likely the two leaders will sign an agreement to promote bilateral trade and an accord of general principles on easing military tensions along the 4,300-mile common border.
China and the Soviet Union split over ideological differences around 1960, and fought a brief border war in 1969.
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