The independent foreign policy, 1982-89
The new policy was given added weight by begin declared at the Twelfth Party Congress in September 1982. The general secretary, Hu Yaobang, explained that henceforth China would follow an independent foreign policy in the conduct of its relations with the United States and the Soviet Union and that China would eschew alliances as these might limit the country`s capacity to exercise independent initiative and damage relations with third parties. The United States too was now said to behave in hegemonic fashion, and the Chinese reservad the right to criticize such actions in the Middle East, Central America and elsewhere. The new declaratory policy enabled the Chinese side once again to place itself at the forefront of Third World concerns and to assume a posture more congruent with its sense of its international identity and dignity.