USSR and China

• Sino-Soviet Treaty 1950

   

  •        Mao and Stalin met face-to-face in December 1949

  •        Confirmed terms of the treaty:

  –       Formal alliance

  –       Economic aid to China worth $300 million

  –       Aid mainly used for machinery and equipment needed for defence 

  –       Technical assistance to get Chinese industry going (e.g. aluminium plant, cable factory)
• • Chinese view of Russia before 1953

  • Mao had great respect for Stalin believing him to be the undisputed head of the world revolutionary movement. China was the junior partner to the USSR

  • Mao said ‘The socialist camp must have one head, and that head can only be USSR.’

  • Alliance - foreign policy in 1949 - protection against attack from the USA

  • Mao wanted help of Soviet experts to develop socialism in China

  
  

  But the legacy of Imperialism meant that China was very sensitive to ANY Western interference or condescension
• Russian view of China

  •        Stalin had been cautious about helping the Chinese communists against the nationalists during the civil war.

  •        Only after Mao had secured victory against the nationalists in 1949 did Stalin openly support the communist party in China.

  •        Stalin viewed Mao as an ‘obstreperous, hard to control upstart leading margarine Communists’!

  •        Stalin knew that China’s revolution was home-grown and very nationalistic hence China could not be treated as a satellite state.

   
• 1949: Communist Revolution in China. Nationalists, under leadership of Chiang Kai Shek, retreat to Taiwan.
• 1949-52:

  Mao respects Stalin and accepts the USSR as the lead Communist nation.
• 1950: Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance agrees military and economic assistance for China from the USSR.
• 19 October 1950: Chinese intervention in the Korean War begins. Stalin had persuaded the Chinese to begin their military involvement.
• 1950-53: China and the USSR cooperate in fighting in the Korean War. Mao is clearly inferior to Stalin in decision making.
• 1954: Taiwan Straits Crisis begins with shelling of Quemoy. Khrushchev gives military support to the Chinese in shelling Taiwan.
• February 1956: Khrushchev criticises Stalin’s domestic policies and ‘destalinisation’ begins. Mao continues to follow Stalinist policies.
• 1958: Second shelling of Quemoy by China begins. The USA shows commitment to helping Taiwan, and the USSR to China.
• 1958: Khrushchev is critical of the Chinese ‘Great Leap Forward’, especially of plans for small-scale steel furnaces.
• 1959: Khrushchev indirectly supported India in their border dispute with China.
• 1959: Khrushchev visits the USA, cementing the policy of Peaceful Coexistence between the USSR and USA.
• Early 1960s: Khrushchev refused to fulfil his agreement to provide a prototype nuclear weapon to aid the Chinese nuclear weapons programme.
• Early 1960s: Emergence of a split between China and the USSR.
• 1962: Mao is critical of Khrushchev’s reluctance to use nuclear weapons and the removal of nuclear weapons in Cuba thus betraying their revolution.
• 1962: China fought a short war with India over disputed territory on the border between the two countries. The Soviet Union, rather than supporting China, remained neutral.
• 1960: the USSR withdrew technical aid from China by removing Soviet experts.
• 1964: Mao claims Damansky Island (in the Ussuri River) will be the first of many territorial gains from USSR. Khrushchev refuses to hand it over.
• 1964: Brezhnev attempts to improve relations with China in order to support North Vietnam. Mao still perceives that the USSR wanted to keep China in an inferior position in terms of global communism
• Late 1964: Malinovsky Incident. The Soviet Foreign Minister suggested to a Chinese official that the Chinese should get rid of Mao just as the USSR had got rid of Khrushchev.
• Mid 1960s: Mao became obsessed with the idea that the USSR posed a military threat to China and rejected Soviet proposals to put a Soviet air force base in S China to protect the Sino Vietnamese border against US aggression.
• April 1965: Mao rejected a Soviet proposal that the USSR, China and North Vietnam should act collectively towards the US escalation of the war in Vietnam. Mao wanted North Vietnam to be dependent on China alone.
• February 1967: The USSR start to strengthen their borders with China by stationing military forces in Mongolia and Eastern Kazakhstan.
• February 1967: The Chinese adopt a policy of ‘ active defence’ based on limited aggression designed to deter any initial Soviet aggression.
• 1967: Chinese Red Guards attack the Russian Embassy in Beijing during the Great Cultural Revolution. The Chinese continue to accuse the USSR of revisionism.
• 1969: Dispute over the Sino-Soviet border at the Ussuri River leads to two major clashes at Damansky Island.
• The Sino-Soviet split of the late 1960s was the result of ideological differences;

  1. Ideological differences

  • China’s reaction to de-Stalinisation

  • Different views about Soviet policy of ‘peaceful coexistence’

  • Soviet criticism of China’s ‘Great Leap Forward’

  • Mao’s promotion of a Cult of Personality and encouraging denunciation of Soviet revisionism in the Great Cultural Revolution

  • Mao promoted himself as the leader of world communism

  
  

  But:

  Both Countries were Communist and on the same side of the Cold War - other reasons play the bigger part
• The Sino-Soviet split of the late 1960s was the result of ideological differences.’

  3. Clash of National interests

  •Tensions over Taiwan

  •China’s criticism of Soviet handling of Cuban Missile Crisis

  •Concerns about neighbours (e.g. border disputes with India etc.)

  •Sino-Soviet border disputes (e.g. Ussuri River)

  
  

  4. Arms Race

  •Tension

  •Disagreements over 1963 Test Ban Treaty

  •China’s developing nuclear

  
  

  2. Personal Rivalries

  • Mao’s rivalry and disagreements with Khrushchev

  • Seen in Khrushchev’s visit to China in 1958

  • Both want to be leader