Shaking off an historical burden: China's relations with the ASEAN-based communist insurgency in Deng's era

Abstract

Deng's China tried hard to prevent its relations with ASEAN-based communist insurgents from obstructing its relations with local governments. China's efforts were seen mainly in three areas: the People's Daily coverage of the communist insurgencies: Chinese leaders' rhetorical reassurances to their ASEAN counterparts; and China's actions in readjusting its relations with the local communists. In all these areas, China's efforts had become increasingly substantive. Meanwhile, various theoretical elaborations were put forward in China regarding the concepts of revolution, war, and era in order to justify some major foreign policy actions including China's changing approach to foreign communist parties and its efforts to promote friendly relations with ruling regimes in the developing world. In the process Mao's theory of National Democratic Revolution, the ideological justification for China's support for communist revolution in the developing world, was revised and finally discarded. China's approach to regional communist insurgencies since 1978 was a significant reflection of Deng's de-Maoification efforts.