TNAG-0741-FCO40-945-Relations-between-China-and-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 112

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also because of the US-Soviet relationship. China's

military potential is being developed steadily, and

already she is one of the five nuclear weapons powers,

has the largest standing army in the world and armed

forces second only in size to the Soviet Union. She is

a permanent member of the Security Council. Inevitably,

therefore, China occupies an important position in the

world today. China's own view of this position is idiosyn-

cratic. She sees the world as divided into -

(i) the First World consisting of the two super-

powers, war between which is inevitable at some

1

stage, but the hegemony of either or both of which

must meanwhile be resisted by all other countries.

Since the Sino-Soviet dispute this doctrine has

been directed principally against the Soviet Union,

but it also leads the Chinese, for example, to wel-

come French Gaullist sentiment towards the United

States and towards superpower agreements. China

thus rejects the major arms control measures

negotiated principally between the superpowers,

notably the non-proliferation treaty and strategic

rms limitations, insisting on her unfettered

right to manage her own affairs;

(ii) the Second World consisting of the other advanced

industrialised nations of the West, including Japan,

with which China can make common cause in resisting

superpower hegemony;

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