June 15-Fyodor Kulakov, a member of the 16-man Moscow Politburo, told the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Congress in Ulan Bator that "the Soviet Communist Party will consistently realize a highly principled course in relations to China, ," and that it is up to the Chinese side to normalize relations between the two Communist superpowers. June 20-In Peking, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser told Chinese Premier Hua Kui-feng that he had "serious doubts" about the ability of the United States to counter growing Soviet power because of "disagreement between President Ford and the Congress." Fraser said that if there is no U.S. naval presence in the Indian Ocean "it would become a Russian sea."

June 23-A Vienna neurologist arrived in Peking to treat Mao Tse-tung. June 23-The State Department said the United States removed its six military advisers from the Nationalist China islands of Quemoy and Matsu. Press accounts reported that the action was taken as part of the American promise to end the U.S. military presence in Nationalist China which was made in the Shanghai communique of 1972. White House Secretary Ron Nessen said the action "had no policy implications" for Washington's relations with Peking and Taipei.

June 26 In response to strikes and growing worker unrest, the Polish Government canceled consumer price increases announced the previous day. June 28-United Press International (UPI) reported that Nationalist China had purchased a $34 million air defense system from an American company. The system will be provided under a private agreement by the Hughes Aircraft Corp. State Department officials told UPI that the air defense system was "purely defensive," and the deal did not represent a shift in American policy towards either Peking or Taipei.

June 29-Soviet Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev, speaking at the summit meeting of European Communist Party leaders, expressed his country's continued commitment to improving relations with the United States but accused the U.S. administration of delaying a strategic arms limitation agreement for political reasons.

June 30-A meeting of European Communist Party leaders was concluded in East Berlin with a statement of principles endorsing each Communist Party's right to conduct its own affairs. It excluded any reference to Soviet leadership of the international Communist movement.

July 4-In a Bicentennial message to President Ford, Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny expressed the hope that Soviet-American relations would continue to aim toward achieving international security and

peace.

July 6-Marshal Chu Teh, co-founder of the Chinese Communist Army and one of the last surviving Chinese leaders who had accompanied Mao Tse-tung on the Long March, died in Peking at the age of 90.

July 7-Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin called for closer economic integration among socialist states in a speech delivered at a meeting of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance in East Berlin.

July 15-The Japan Times (English edition) reported that Ko Maruyama, director general of the Defense Agency's Defense Bureau, told the Diet that Japan would not like to see a drastic change occur in con

nection with the security of Taiwan. He, thus, endorsed Foreign Minister Miyazawa's similar view, expressed to Senator Mansfield in Tokyo on July 12.

July 17-The Soviet newspaper Pravda attacked a speech by Austrian Chancellor Kreisky, marking the U.S. Bicentennial, for giving the U.S. primary credit for the liberation of Austria after World War II. July_19—According to the French newspaper Le Monde, Soviet leader Brezhnev sent a note to the Syrian Government accusing it of prolonging the war in Lebanon and requesting that Syria remove its troops from that country. The note was reportedly dated July 11.

July 20-Japan confirmed that the People's Republic of China had officially protested Japanese Foreign Minister Miyazawa's warning to U.S. Senator Mansfield against cancellation of the U.S. security treaty with Taiwan or any sudden or drastic change in Sino-American relations. July 22-Secretary Kissinger publicly renewed a suggestion for a conference of the United States, the People's Republic of China, and North and South Korea to discuss a permanent armistice in Korea. Kissinger said that American troops will not be withdrawn from the Korean Peninsula until a permanent peace is arranged.

July 24—Wu Teh, mayor of Peking, was reported to have been selected to perform the functions of the chairman of the National People's Congress (China's nearest equivalent to a head of state), a post which has been vacant since the death of Marshal Chu Teh on July 6. July 26-A delegation of staff members of several congressional committees arrived in Peking.

July 27-Northern China was hit by a powerful earthquake which was centered 90 miles southeast of Peking near Tienstin, and which measured 8.2 on the Richter scale.

July 28-The U.S. Government offered aid to China in recovery efforts after a July 27 earthquake and a severe aftershock on the 28th. July 29-Great losses of life and property were reported in China in the aftermath of the earthquake. Tangshan, a city of more than 1.5 million citizens, was reported devastated by the earthquake and aftershock. July 29-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser told the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that international stability will not be possible unless the People's Republic of China is more fully involved in the world community. Fraser said, "whatever view one takes of China's ideology, it is clear that Chinese society manifests a sense of purpose and self reliance."

July 30-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev accused the United States, Britain, France, and West Germany of attempting to dictate to Italy by threatening to withhold financial aid if the Communists are given a role in the Italian government. The criticism was contained in an interview published by Pravda.

July 30-The Senate agreed to Senate Resolution 499, supporting a Presidential offer to assist victims of recent earthquakes in China, and expressing condolences to the victims of this tragedy. China declined the offer on July 31.

August 2-Senator Hugh Scott, who returned in late July from a 14-day trip to China, said in Washington that "the radicals who have grabbed the party machinery" in China have insisted on an early timetable for U.S. normalization of relations with Peking and breaking ties with Taiwan. These leaders, said Scott, view the liberation of Taiwan as "an internal affair."

August 10-The Soviet Embassy in Washington denied claims by some Western observers that underground nuclear explosions conducted by the Soviet Union in July exceeded the limits established in agreements with the United States.

August 12-An authoritative article appearing in a Soviet naval journal claimed the right of any Soviet ship to pass through the Bosporus Straits, according to a Reuter dispatch. The article rejected Western allegations that the recent passage of the aircraft carrier Kiev through the Turkish straits violated the Montreux Convention of 1936.

August 27-The Soviet Union sentenced three Americans to prison terms for attempting to smuggle heroin through the Soviet Union.

August 28-The U.S. Navy frigate Voge reportedly collided with a Soviet nuclear submarine in the Ionian Sea.

August 29-The Washington Post reported that "U.S. intelligence reports over the past 6 months indicate that Taiwan has been secretly reprocessing spent uranium fuel, an operation that can produce atomic weapons material, according to officials of the ACDA and the ERDA." The Associated Press reported that an administration official had confirmed the Post's account. The official said, according to the AP, that the conditions under which the U.S. ships nuclear power reactors and enriched uranium fuel to Taiwan do not prohibit reprocessing. August 30-The Republic of China denied that it has been secretly reprocessing spent uranium fuel.

August 30-The Soviet newspaper Pravda warned of a growing danger of war in the Middle East, criticized Egypt for worsening relations with Libya, and called for a withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. September 2-Nikolai A. Tikhonov was named First Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers. Some Western observers speculated that the promotion of Tikhonov was related to Chairman Kosygin's reported ill health.

September 6-A Soviet air force pilot flew a Mig-25 jet fighter to Japan and asked for political asylum in the United States. The defection gave Western intelligence experts access to the most advanced Soviet plane of its type.

September 7-The Japanese Defense Agency announced that it will give top priority to improving Japan's radar early warning system in the next defense buildup program beginning April 1, 1977.

September 9-Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung died at the age of 82 of an undisclosed illness. The Communist Party Committee called for a week of mourning, during which Mao's remains would be on view in the Great Hall of the People in Peking.

September 9-President Ford issued a statement on the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung which read in part: "Americans will remember that it was

under Chairman Mao that China moved together with the United States to end a generation of hostility and to launch a new and more positive era in relations between our two countries. I am confident that the trend of improved relations between the People's Republic of China and the United States, which Chairman Mao helped create, will continue to contribute to world peace and stability."

September 9-Secretary Kissinger predicted that the main lines of Chinese policy towards the United States and the Soviet Union will not change as a result of the death of Mao.

September 9-The Soviet media reported the death of Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung without commentary.

September 10-Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko, who defected to Japan in a Mig-25, was flown to the United States where he had requested political asylum, amid Soviet demands that both the pilot and the plane be returned to the Soviet Union by Japan.

September 13-Representatives of foreign countries paid their last respects to Chairman Mao Tse-tung's remains in the Great Hall of the People in Peking. The foreign groups included the U.S. liaison office representation and a party of 11 Americans led by former U.S. Defense Secretary Schlesinger. Schlesinger's party was greeted by Premier Hua Kuo-feng and other members of the Chinese leadership.

September 18-Solemn mass memorial meetings observing the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung were held throughout China.

September 20-The Soviet communique released after a three hour meeting between Leonid Brezhnev and Averell Harriman stressed Brezhnev's interest in the continued expansion of Soviet-American relations. In an interview following the meeting, Harriman indicated that the Soviet leader was concerned over the anti-détente rhetoric of the U.S. election campaign.

September 22-The Soviet Union charged that Japan has aggravated relations between the two countries by forcibly handing over to the United States a Russian defector Air Force officer.

September 22-Taiwan agreed to stop all activities related to reprocessing of nuclear fuel, State Department officials stated in hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Arms Control. Assistant Secretary of State Arthur W. Hummel, Jr., testified that Taiwan has the economic and scientific base from which to develop nuclear weapons or a nuclear explosive device should they choose to do so.

September 24-Japanese Defense authorities, with assistance from American military specialists, dismantled and transferred to a military airfield the Soviet Mig-25 aircraft landed in northern Japan by a defecting Soviet pilot. Reportedly, a joint team of Japanese and United States Air Force combat aviation experts spent the past 10 days dismantling the Mig-25.

September 26-The Chinese Communist Party indicated for the first time since Mao Tse-tung's death that China's anti-Soviet policy will continue. The Red Flag magazine carried an article mentioning Mao's reference to the Soviet Union as a "paper tiger."

September 26-The New China News Agency announced that China detonated its second nuclear bomb this year in response to the Party's call to turn "grief into strength" following Mao's death.

September 27-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said at a press conference that the Soviet Union is "militarily strong and busier" than ever before. He said that the Soviet military buildup went beyond what was needed to deter nuclear war but added that there was no need to change the current U.S. defense budget.

September 27—Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Miko said in Tokyo that he saw "no difficulty fundamentally" in concluding a peace and friendship treaty with China containing a controversial clause against hegemony by a third power.

September 28-In Peking, Premier Hua Kuo-feng had a friendly conversation with James Schlesinger, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, and members of Mr. Schlesinger's party.

September 28-Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in a speech. to the U.N. General Assembly, stressed the need for nuclear disarmament. He defended the policy of détente with the United States, called for a settlement of the Middle East crisis and an end to the civil war in Lebanon, and scored the U.S. peace initiative in South Africa.

September 29-Secretary of State Kissinger and Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko held talks in New York. According to press accounts, the major topic was strategic arms limitation.

September 29-It was announced in Tokyo that Japan and the Soviet Union had agreed to start talks on the return of the Mig-25 aircraft. September 29-The Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a point-by-point refutation of the Soviet allegation that Lieutenant Belenko had not defected by his own free will.

September 29-The Chinese People's Liberation Army announced that in honor of the 27th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, shelling of the Quemoys and other islands would be suspended on October 1st and 3d.

September 29-After a 23-day tour of China, including Sinkiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Kweilin, former Defense Secretary Schlesinger reportedly was seriously concerned about apparent weaknesses in Chinese defense capabilities.

September 30-In an official message marking the 27th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union called for the normalization of Sino-Soviet relations.

September 30-Speaking before the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary of State Kissinger reaffirmed the policy of détente but attacked the Soviet Union for allegedly continuing its arms buildup, intervening in local conflicts, and stirring racial hatreds in southern Africa.

October 1-An article in Pravda called for an improvement in Sino-Soviet relations, stressing that the Soviet Union had neither territorial, economic, or other grievances against China.

October 1-President Ford met with Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko in Washington to discuss major problems in international relations, including the Middle East and SALT negotiations.