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Since small countries like Norway can seldom affect the policies of superpowers, an important question to ask is whether Norway could influence the human right situation in China through dialogue and co-operation? In the West, China has been known for human rights violations exemplified by the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. During the first decade of the 21st century the tone has changed, however. While the human right situation is still bad in China, the country has signed and ratified many UN conventions, engaged in human rights dialogues with Norway, Canada and Australia, and slowly increased the civil liberties of its citizens. The Norwegian dialogue with China has taken place on three levels: political consultation, roundtable discussions, and diplomat meetings. L. Pitkaniemi

This article prevents a historical summary of Norway's 1971 role in the normalization of relations between China & Thailand. Norwegian ambassador to Beijing Ole Alegrd met with Thailand's Foreign Affairs Minister Thanat Khoman, who made it known to Alegrdthat Thailand wished to have diplomatic relations with China. Alegrd's performance as diplomatic negotiator in this process is here described by former ambassador Sten Lundbo, who also reveals the effect that the UN General Assembly's resolution to invite China to assume a place in the UN. This development came then as a natural segue to invite China to participate in direct negotiation with Thailand. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were finally established in 1975, thanks largely to the Norway's diplomatic management of the situation, as is described in this article. C. Brunski