Abstract: In response to the continuing deterioration of the Sino-Soviet relationship, Soviet and Chinese officials, journalists, and scholars together embarked on the production of a Soviet journal, its translation into Chinese, and its distribution in China. Friendship Society and foreign affairs officials sponsored a series of “Readers’ Conferences” in numerous cities in China, designed to solicit Chinese ideas about the improvement of the journal and the broader relationship. The effort failed, and the contrasting concerns and assumptions brought by the two sides to the conferences and to the editorial discussions of the journal illustrate the complexities and difficulties of the Sino-Soviet relationship at the lower-levels of collaboration and exchange.