ABSTRACT
The Liaowang article conveys the impression that all the members of the Politburo Standing Committee were involved in one way or another in formulating the new policy. The Liaowang article also outlined the steps that led, finally, to the decision to open an additional fourteen coastal cities and Hainan Island. Five members of the Politburo belong to the eleven-member Party Secretariat. A number of Politburo members exert influence of various kinds on the making of foreign policy in China. Elected to the Politburo in 1956, Peng Zhen became the second ranking secretary of the Secretariat, and the only one besides Deng Xiaoping who was on the Politburo. He made a number of trips abroad in the 1950s and 1960s, and was involved in many talks with foreign leaders. He played a major role in the Sino-Soviet debates at the start of the 1960s.
