China and Eastern Europe from the 1960s to the 1980s
Introduction

On 24-26 March 2004, an international conference focusing on the relations between China and Eastern European countries in the 1960-80s was held in Beijing (see program and participants list below). It focused on the security implications of the US-Chinese rapprochement, China’s policies toward the Warsaw Pact and NATO, Soviet perceptions of China as an ally of the West, bilateral relations between China and the member states of the Warsaw Pact other that the Soviet Union, and Sino-Albanian relations during the 1960s–1980s. The conference brought together a selected group of Chinese and East European officials who were involved in the mutual relations as diplomats or party officials in the 1960-80s.

It was organized by the Party History Research Center of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Parallel History Project and the Warsaw Pact (PHP), in cooperation with the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), the George Washington University Cold War Group (GWCW), and the LSE Cold War Studies Centre. The PHP now offers the proceedings of the conference in Chinese as well as in English. The English version, co-edited by Xiaoyuan Liu and Vojtech Mastny, was published in November 2004 by the Center for Security Studies as volume 72 in its series “Zürcher Beiträge zur Sicherheitspolitik und Konfliktanalyse.” The proceedings will allow specialists and an interested wider public to follow the fascinating roundtable discussion of former diplomats and scholars. The main results of the conference are summarized in Vojtech Mastny's conference report.