ABSTRACT
By the early 1980s the notion that some kind of connection with the Communist regime on the Chinese main-land might provide the Western alliance with at least a partial solution to its security problems had won a fairly large following among Americans. A substantial part of the plausibility of such a contention was a consequence of the perception that the People's Republic of China was tying down about fifty Soviet divisions along its borders. The Carter administration had argued that the Soviet Union's military build-up could be stopped, or its pace reduced, by unilateral actions by the United States. The Soviet Union has undertaken escalating commitments to the long-term development of energy resources in Siberia. The leadership in Peking has good reason to entertain serious misgivings about the ultimate intentions of the Soviet Union whatever mainland China's relationship with the United States or the Western powers might be.
