 In a move calculated to deliberately antagonize the Soviets to stay out of the succession dispute then going on in Syria, Mustafa Tlass allowed himself to be photographed waving Mao Zedong's Little Red Book, just two months after bloody clashes between Chinese and Soviet armies on the Ussuri river.The Soviet Union then agreed to back down and sell Syria weapons.In 1989, Libya has agreed to finance Syria's purchase of M-9 missiles from China.