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China offers tributes to late Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for fostering Beijing-Moscow ties
- But the collapse of the USSR was a wake-up call for the Chinese communist leadership, according to analysts
- Low-key state media coverage of Gorbachev’s death shows that China has moved on, analyst says
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China paid tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Wednesday, hailing him for his contribution to improving ties between Beijing and Moscow.
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“Mr Gorbachev made positive contributions to the normalisation of China-Soviet Union relations,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
“We mourn his death and express our condolences to his family.”
The leader of the former Soviet Union died in Moscow on Tuesday aged 91.
News of Gorbachev’s death was widely reported by Chinese state media, with most outlets citing the ministry’s statement, and some also repeating previous reports of how the Soviet Union collapsed under his watch.
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Chinese analysts said that at the time the collapse was a wake-up call for the Chinese Communist Party leadership, which has since gone to great effort to understand the causes of the regime’s demise.
They said China’s answer to avoiding a Soviet-style failure was to strengthen the party’s apparatus, adhere to Marxist-Leninist principles and resist Western ideology.
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