China Teday. China's Foreign Affairs and Intemational Relations s Several events in the late 1960s and early 1970s however. led china and the united states to reexamine their basic policies toward each other After the soviet union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the sino-Soviet border clashes in 1969. China saw its major threat as clearly coming from the Soviet Union rather than the united States and sought a closer relationship with Washington as a counterweight to moscow School of politics and International relations 2013/4/12❖ Several events in the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, led China and the United States to reexamine their basic policies toward each other. After the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the Sino-Soviet border clashes in 1969, China saw its major threat as clearly coming from the Soviet Union rather than the United States and sought a closer relationship with Washington as a counterweight to Moscow