Major Events in Soviet-Chinese Relations Since 1949 With PM-Beijing Summit, Bjt

BEIJING (AP) _ Here is a chronology of major events in Chinese-Soviet relations since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949:

-October 1949: The Soviet Union is the first foreign nation to recognize the People’s Republic led by Mao Tse-tung.

-December 1949: Mao makes his first trip to Moscow and is snubbed by Josef Stalin, who met with the Chinese revolutionary only after Mao threatened to return home.

-February 1950: After difficult negotiations, Mao and Stalin signed a friendship treaty.

-1955: The Soviets leave Dalian, or Port Arthur, which they had occupied since World War II.

-February 1956: Nikita Khrushchev’s speech criticizing Stalin, who died in 1953, surprisesand angers the Chinese Communists. They accused the Soviets of revisionism.

-October 1957: The Soviets agree to furnish China with a sample atomic bomb. The promise is retracted two years later after relations begin to cool.

-1958: Khrushchev visits Beijing to urge caution toward the United States in China’s conflict with Taiwan over the offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu, but is rebuffed.

-October 1959: Khrushschev visits Beijing for the 10th anniversary of the People’s Republic. Talks with Mao go badly and relations grow worse.

-July 1960: The Kremlin withdraws all 1,300 Soviet technicians assigned to China, heralding a split.

-August 1966: Red Guards besiege the Soviet Embassy during China’s Cultural Revolution.

-March 1969: Chinese and Soviet soldiers clash on the border.

-February 1972: President Nixon visits China.

-December 1978: Vietnam, a Soviet ally, invades Cambodia.

-October 1979: Border talks begin in Moscow but are suspended in January, a month after Soviet military forces enter Afghanistan.

-1980: China joins the boycott of the Moscow Olympics.

-October 1982: Talks begin on normalization, but make little progress.

-May 1985: The two governments sign a 5-year trade agreement worth $14 billion.

-February 1987: Border talks resume in Moscow.

-August 1988: China and the Soviet Union hold their first direct talks on Cambodia.

-December 1988: Qian Qichen makes the first visit to Moscow by a Chinese foreign minister in 32 years. Mikhail S. Gorbachev announces a cut in military strength of 500,000 men and says most Soviet troops will be removed from Mongolia.

-February 1989: Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the Soviet foreign minister, visits Beijing and a summit is announced.

-May 15, 1989 - Gorbachev arrives in China for the first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years and the Soviet troop withdrawal from Mongolia begins.

-May 16, 1989 - Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping announces relations are normalized.