Communist China

• What happened during the Revolution in China, 1949?


  In 1949, Mao's Communist Party took control of China, ending the civil war that had raged there since 1945.

  This was significant for the superpower relations as China's huge resources boosted the communist East and threatened to spread communism across Asia.
• What happened between China and the USSR?

  A Treaty of Friendship was signed between the nations
• What was included in the Treaty of Friendship?

  1.$300 million in aid would be sent to China (although 95% was to be repaid, and most of it was spent on Soviet goods)

  2. 8000 Chineese students could travel to the USSR to study science and technology.

  3. 20,000 Soviet experts were sent to help the development of China

  However, relations between China and the USSR worsened following Stalin's death in March 1953, as Khrushchev and Mao didn't get along well.

  4. Mao wanted to protect China from US influence.
• What was the Western reaction to China?

  They saw the communist takeover as a disaster: as they saw it as a failure of the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment.

  Therefore they saw it as a victory for Stalin who now had influence over the most highly populated country in the world.

  Due to the Domino Theory, they also believed China was a threat to the rest of Asia.

  In response- the USA dramatically increased funding to Japan and other countries in Asia to try and prevent Communism spreading further.
• What were the problems between China and the East?

  1.China was never truly part of the Soviet Sphere

  2. China was mainly a country of rural peasants so Mao needed to find an ideology that worked for it. However, the USSR didn't want its leadership challenged.

  3. Mao and Krushchev didn't get along after Stalin's death in 1953
• After the civil war in China, Mao declared he establishment of the People's Republic of China on the 1st October 1949.

  The Nationalists, who'd previously ruled the country, retreated to the island of Taiwan.