ABSTRACT
Since the early 1980s, a new stage in Sino-Soviet relations has been developing. By adopting a more “independent” and balanced position in the triangle of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the People’s Republic of China, China has sought to move to the pivotal position in the triangle. In the 1950s, China allied itself with the Soviet Union and became Moscow’s “junior partner” in the global rivalry with the United States. China has managed its superpower relations so well that both the Soviet Union and the United States seem content with, and even optimistic about, their future relations with China. China not only fears the Soviet Union more than it fears the United States, but it also has more to gain from trade and economic cooperation with the West than it has to gain from the Soviet Union. Many Chinese leaders and economists recognize the great deficiencies of the Soviet model of central planning.
