ABSTRACT
The Chinese media had reduced the Moscow drama to a non-event. Developments were reported after considerable delay, of up to two days, and even then selectively, dryly and succinctly, with appointments and replacements of the leadership presented without comment, as routine personnel changes. Sino-Soviet relations had certainly improved since Gorbachev’s rise to power, despite China’s anxieties at developments inside the USSR. The developments within the USSR, the effects of reform and the weakening of Soviet unity and power were removing what China had viewed for three decades as the major threat to her security. At the same time, they were substituting the dire and dangerous example of the collapse of socialism and disintegration of the USSR. Foreigners are dependent upon Chinese journalists, bureaucrats and institutional personnel, and the personal relations of trust which they are able to develop with them.
