Published : 2025-05-15

On May 15, 1989, the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (戈爾巴喬夫) visited China.

Gorbachev was the first highest Soviet leader to visit China since the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s.

During this trip, Gorbachev held a meeting with China's leader at the time, Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平).

Deng Xiaoping expressed hope that the three major obstacles between China and the Soviet Union could be eliminated and that meetings and dialogues could be realised soon.

Deng Xiaoping summarised this meeting with one sentence, "Ending the past and opening up the future."

Gorbachev pointed out that the Soviet Union also acknowledged its own mistakes concerning the historical deterioration of bilateral relations.

After the meeting, China and the Soviet Union officially announced the normalisation of their relations.