China, USSR Resume Friendly Relations

BEIJING--The leaders of the world's biggest Communist countries agreed yesterday to resume friendly ties after three decades of hostility, and they indicated they would work to dismantle the central controls over their economies.

The historic meeting between Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping took place amid a protest by hundreds of thousands of people who took control of giant Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reforms.

Gorbacnev, based on his spokesperson's account, appeared to describe the pro-democracy demonstrators as "hotheads."

At the formal talks, a Soviet spokesperson said the two leaders also agreed that the theories of Karl Marx must be revised to fit the times.

When rigid idealogues ran the Soviet Union and China, tinkering with the father of communism's ideas would have been heresy, but Gorbachev and Deng are trying to change the system of control they blame for paralyzing their economies.

"Karl Marx lived in the last century and can't provide all the answers to the problems of this century," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gennady I. Gerasimov told reporters.

He said Gorbachev told Deng, China's 84-year-old senior leader, "The way we adapt to these conditions will determine the influence of socialism on the world."

About the demonstrations, the spokesperson said Gorbachev "expressed the hope that it would be resolved by the Chinese people. Both sides have their hotheads who want to renovate socialism overnight."

Checking his notes after being questioned at a midnight briefing about the remark, Gerasimov quoted Gorbachev as saying, "And we have our hotheads, too."

Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang sent a message to the students early Wednesday promising the government would "work out concrete measures to enhance democracy and law, oppose corruption, build an honest and clean government and expand openness," the official news agency Xinhua reported.

After the meeting with Deng, Gorbachev conferred with Premier Li Peng and Zhao to wrap up the historic fence-mending.

Gerasimov said the talks, expected to set the agenda for further efforts to rebuild the relationship after a freeze of three decades, produced general agreement for eventual withdrawal of troops from the border.

The spokesperson said Gorbachev suggested exchanging information about troop movements as the Soviet Union now does with the United States and its NATO allies.

"We want the Soviet-Chinese border to be protected only by friendship," Gerasimov said.

It was clear from reports by both sides that no agreement had been reached on Cambodia, where the Soviets support a decade-old Vietnamese occupation and the Chinese arm rebels.

After his meetings and lunch with Deng, Gorbachev stepped into a Beijing street to announce his nation's resumption of friendly ties with China, but steered clear of the prodemocracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said people shouted "Welcome! Welcome!" and cheered when Gorbachev said he and Deng had normalized relations.

On the way back to the state guest house after seeing Deng, the 58-year-old Soviet leader stopped his limousine and got out to shake hands with pedestrians, as he often does when visiting foreign capitals.

"Gorbachev told the masses the Soviet and Chinese peoples enjoy a very good friendship," Xinhua said.