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MVZ-207
Chinese Foreign Policy
since 1949
Mgr. Jan Polišenský
Spring 2011
Week 4: Revolutionary Diplomacy (1959 –
1968)
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• Taiwan strait shelling
• Great leap forward
• after GLP
• Sino-Russian relations
• Sino-Indian War
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Military cooperation
• November 1957 - China's defense minister Peng
Dehuai visited Moscow
• 1958 – Long Range radio transmitters.
• SU would cover 70 % of construction costs
• Mao – saw it as threaten to the Chinese
sovereignty and integrity
• Mao would agreed to it, only if China would pay
all expanses, retain exclusive ownership
• China, would be responsible for construction,
purchase of the technology from SU, owned by
China, but operated jointly with SU
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Military cooperation
• 1957 – Soviet military advisers in china indicated
to China that they should purchase new naval
equipment from SU
• 28 june 1958 – Zhou Enlai/ Khrushchev –
technological assistance
• China should create the submarine fleet with SU
assistance?
• Jointly create the fleet? (no assistance) Mao
stated that he is not interested in creating SinoSoviet
“military cooperative”
• Radio transmitter+ submarine fleet = control of
China
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Beijing's Taiwan Policy
• First Phase: Preparation to Liberate Taiwan (1949-
1950)
• Second Phase: Korea, Not Taiwan 1950-1953
• Third Phase: First Taiwan Strait Crisis 1954-195
• Fourth Phase: Peace Initiative – mid 1955-1957
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First Phase (1949-1950)
• Propaganda “Liberate Taiwan”
• Beginning of Planning 1949
• Liu Shaoqi secret trip to Moscow - military
and technology help
• Soviet Union – help to establish their own
forces
• October and November 1949 - 2 defeats in
Jinmen and Dengbu
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Second Phase (1950-1953)
• Korea not Taiwan
• Truman – Seventh Fleet in Taiwan Strait
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Third Phase (1954-1955)
• In December 1953 – Chen Yi (commander of
PLA's East China Military region) proposed to
construct several new airfields
• Mao – first to invade small islands then Taiwan
• Propaganda “Liberate Taiwan” and domestic
mobilization
• Washington and Taiwan accelerated
negotiations and signed treaty 2nd December
1954
• PLA successfully invaded islands Dachen and
Yijianshan in January 1955
• Washington did not intervene, only helped
GMD troops to withdraw
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Fourth Phase (1955-1957)
• Peace Initiatives
• Beijing response – Great Success
• Strengthen the coastal security
• American-Taiwan defense treaty
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Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
• July 1958 – Coup in Iraq and established a
new regime (friendly to Socialist bloc)
• US troops landed in Lebanon and British
landed in Jordan.
• Beijing protested into intervention
• July – Decided to shell Jinmen islands - “moral
support”
• Postponed the military actions in last minute
• - units not ready
• Nikita Khrushchev was scheduled to visit
Beijing
• Bombardment of Jinmen 23 august – started a
major international crisis
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• The shelling conducted only to Jinmen island
but not Mazu
• Main goal to isolate GMD troops – cutting them
from supply
• Support Middle East – failed
• Mao's decision to bring China into the crisis
primary for the purpose of creating
environment for the Great Leap Forward
• US ships – avoid hitting US navy
• Nuclear Weapons
• Mao's justifications of shelling Taiwan
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
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1954-1955- Taiwan Strait
crisis
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Great Leap Forward
• 1950's - Mao's social and cultural programs,
including collectivization
• Soviets were not treating China as an equal
partner.
• Mao's leadership, he broke with the Soviet model
and announced a new economic program
• In 1958, aimed at rapidly raising industrial and
agricultural production.
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• Soviet aid for 1958 and beyond did not meet
Chinese expectations
• Features of the Great Leap Forward:
• (steel, coal, cotton, and grain; backyard steel
furnaces; fly, mosquito, rat, and sparrow)
Great Leap Forward
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Great Leap Forward
• Mao announced the goal of surpassing the steel
production output of Great Britain by 15 years
• Later that year revised to surpass UK by 3 years
• Rather than build steel mills, small "backyard
furnaces" would be used.
• People’s communes – large, centralized
organizations in rural areas
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Great Leap Forward
• The results = disastrous.
• Normal market mechanisms were disrupted
• Agricultural production fell
• Distributing food and resources led to rapid
depletion due to poor planning
• Starvation
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GTF - Aftermath
• Failures resulted in large-scale famine,
hardship, and depression – “three years (1959-
61) of difficulties”
• Attributions to alleged “natural calamities” and
“withdrawal of Soviet aid,”
• Major Chinese accusation of Moscow’s betrayal
• Inner-Party struggle and Mao’s self-criticism
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Great Leap Forward
• Widespread famine – 20-40 million deaths
• The steel produced in backyard furnaces at low
temperatures proved to be useless.
• unusual weather patterns and natural disasters
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Struggle with Soviet
Revisionism
• Re-emphasis of class struggle amongst
economic recovery (1962-65)
• Mao’s fear of economic rehabilitation policies
that might lead the country away from
revolution
• Continued mobilization to attack internal class
enemies – Mao warned: “Never forget class
struggle!” in 1962
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Criticism of Great Leap
Forward
• Defense Minister Peng Dehuai
• He accused Mao of being responsible for disaster
and was in turn denounced as a rightist and
removed from office
• Peng then lived retired in disgrace
• Peng was arrested by Red Guards during the
Cultural Revolution
• Peng died 1974, after Mao's Death he was
posthumously rehabilitated with full honors
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• 8th Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China, began on July 23, 1959
• Discussion about the Great Leap Forward
• Lushan Conference - Peng Dehuai (defense minister)
Anti-party Group
• Peng Duhai -criticized Great leap forward
• In the early 1960s, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping
began restoring the Communist Party’s traditional
top-down, bureaucratic decision making procedures
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• Peng and others were branded an anti-Party
group = dismissed and purged
• Charges that Peng was inspired by Moscow
(most deadly crime)!!!!
• Because of Mao radical policies with Soviet
Union, they withdraw the help (food)
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Border War with India (1962)
and China’s policy toward
South Asia
• Initial China-India friendship – Zhou Enlai and
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
• The Tibetan Issue - Revolt in Tibet in March
1959, and the Dalai Lama given political
asylum in India
• Border disputes in the Aksai Chin plateau in
Ladakh leading to a clash in October 1959
• Moscow intensified friendship with India and
signed a friendship treaty to support India’s
war over Eastern Pakistan (Bangladesh)
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• Mao started the Indian war in order to keep the
power, control of the PLA
• Soviet started to sell weapons to India
• wider split between USSR/China
• Soviet unwillingness to help and to support
china against India
• China's friendship with Pakistan
• Border agreement in 1963
• military cooperation
• Pakistan served as a Kissingers's bridge to
China in 1971
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Zhou Enlai visit to India, 1954
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China and Vietnam War
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Movement of Resisting
America and Assisting Vietnam
• Conflicts broke out in Laos in 1962
• Civil war in Vietnam out of control
• American military presence increased in South
Vietnam in 1964-1965
• China strengthened ties with North Vietnam
• Competition with the Soviets
• By 1968 over 320,000 Chinese troops had
participated as anti-aircraft artillery forces and
engineers
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• In 1950, China extended diplomatic recognition
to N. Vietnam and sent weapons, as well as
military advisors led by Luo Guibo
• Partition on 17th parallel
• China's ability to aid Vietnam was reduced due
to the Korean War.
• China provided material and technical support
to the Vietnamese communists
• In the summer of 1962, Mao Zedong agreed to
supply Hanoi with 90,000 rifles and guns
• Beijing extended its security commitments to
Hanoi in 1964
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• In 1962 and 1963, the split
• Beijing and Moscow openly criticizing each
other's lack of loyalty to Marxism-Leninism
• Beijing was escalating its propaganda
criticizing Moscow's failure to give
• Sufficient support to revolutionary national
liberation movements
• The rift between Beijing and Hanoi deepened as
North Vietnam received
• more support from Moscow
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•Starting in 1965, China sent anti-aircraft units and
engineering battalions to North Vietnam to repair and
rebuild roads and railroads
•1968 – China/Soviet Union disagreement
•Demanded that North Vietnam would cut relations
with SU
•Competition between SU/China over help Vietnam
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Sino–Soviet border conflict
• March 1969 - The most serious of border clashes
Zhenbao Island on the Ussuri River
• China's foreign policy and the rapprochement
with the United States
• After the conflict, America showed actual
interest in strengthening ties with the Chinese
government (Kissinger, Ping-Pong Diplomacy)
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The end ☺