1
MVZ-207
Chinese Foreign Policy
since 1949
Mgr. Jan Polišenský
Spring 2011
Week 3: United Front against Soviet
Hegemony (1969-1979)
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/20
11/03/13/gps.china.flex.cnn?iref=allsearch
Border Conflict with the
Soviet Union in 1969 and the
new strategic thinking
• Leonid Brezhnev and his doctrine in invading
Czechoslovakia in October 1968
• Military clashes in March-August 1969
• “Soviet Social Imperialism”
• Nuclear threats and the Alexei Kosygin-Zhou
Enlai talks in Beijing
Cultural Revolution
• Lushan Conference – Peng's criticicm
• Defense Minister Lin Biao the task
• Leading a campaign to revive Mao’s flagging
personality cult
• Little Red Book
• Designed to strengthen socialism by removing
capitalist elements from Chinese society
• 16-05-1966 – Launched by Mao
• Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old
Ideas
• Red Guards
• Groups of Red Guards tortured thousands of
teachers and administrators
Fading Revolution 1968-1969
• Struggling against US imperialism = Mao's efforts
to legitimize his continuous revolution.
• Being's pursuit of fundamental changes in
Chinese policy toward the US
• Strong commitment to Marxist-Leninist ideology –
lean to the Soviet Union side
2
• First, revision of concept of imperialism by
identifying it with the Soviet Union “socialimperialist”
country
• Moscow, had replaced Washington as the center of
reactionary forces in the world
• Second, ideological beliefs yielded to the security
interests
• Two purposes:
• First, Mao hoped to find new means to promote
the transformation of China's party, state, and
society
• Second, Mao wanted to reestablished his
weakened authority and reputation – after the
Great Leap Forward
Opening to West
• In fall 1969, no official communication between
China and the United States.
• The last meeting of Sino-American
ambassadorial talks was held in Warsaw in
January 1968.
• July 1969, Nixon wanted to talk to Chinese he
had to talk to Pakistani president Mohammad
Yahya Khan and Romanian leader Nicolae
Ceausescu
• Indirect Contacts
• Slow contacts / Slow communications
• Taiwan Issue
• Albania – Criticism of China-US talks
Edgar Snow
• American writer and journalist
• Best know for the book Red Star Over China -1937
• Pro-communist
• Friend to Mao and China since 1930s
• Ambassador in France that he should apply for
Visa
• Interviewed Mao
• “American Friend of China
Ping-Pong Diplomacy
• 1st World Table Tennis Championship in Nagoya,
Japan
• Glenn Cowan, missed his U.S. team bus
• Zhuang Zedong, a three-time World Men's Singles
Champion, gave Cowan a present - silk-screen
portrait of the Huangshan Mountains
• PRC responded by inviting the American ping
pong team to tour China
3
Kissinger's role and his trip
•In July 1971 Henry Kissinger, while on a trip to
Pakistan
•Fake illness for one day
•Top-secret mission to Beijing to open relations with
the government of the PRC.
•On July 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon revealed
the mission to the world
•And that Nixon was invited to visit the PRC, and
that he had accepted the offer
Lin Biao affair
• Mao's supporter
• Little Red Book
• Mao's criticism of Lin Biao
• Lin Biao emerged as the primary military power
and second in rank behind Mao Zedong in the
party
• Disagreement about the normalization with USA
• Cultural Revolution spun out of control
• The PLA, under Lin's command, took over the
country from the party
• Attempted Coup and Assassination attempt on
Mao
• Plane Crash
The death of Lin Biao and the
waning of radicalism
• Lin Biao tried to expand his power
• But was gradually undermined by Mao and Zhou
• Lin’s attempted assassination of Mao
• Lin Biao died on September 13, 1971, in a
plane crash in Mongolia when he and his wife
tried to flee to Russia
• Lin’s death seriously discredited Mao’s political
wisdom and judgment, and the Cultural
Revolution
• Mao’s reflections and deteriorating health
• Radicalism in decline
The death of Lin Biao and the
waning of radicalism
4
United Nations
• October 25, 1971, China's seat in the United
Nations and membership of the United Nations
Security Council has been occupied by the
People's Republic of China (PRC)
• Supported by the Third world countries
China joins the United Nations
Shanghai Communiqué - 1972
• Normalization of their relation
• General agreement about the international order
in East Asia
• Which would not become subject to “hegemony”
• Taiwan issue was the major stumbling block in
Sino-American normalization
• One-China Policy
• The two sides were willing to defer diplomatic
problems and the Taiwan problem
• Focused on their common strategic interests in
East Asia
• US military pressure on China was reduced,
• China’s attitude toward Vietnam dramatically
changes
• US-China détente greatly enhanced China’s
international stature
• Normalization of China-Japan relations
Shanghai Communiqué - 1972
5
Mao Zedong meet to Richard Nixon, in
Beijing, in 1972
Zhou Enlai and Richard Nixon, at Hongqiao airport,
Shanghai, in 1972
February 17, 1973 evening, Chairman Mao
Zedong met with U.S. Assistant to the President
for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger.
During Kissinger's visit, the two sides agreed to:
the respective liaison offices in each other's
capitals to establish direct contact between the
two countries.
December 2, 1975, Chairman Mao Zedong met
with President Ford and his wife, Betty Ford,
her daughter Susan Ford
6
The Three Worlds Theory
• Zhou Enlai - 1969
• Claimed that the world was politically and
economically divided into three worlds
• The U.S. and the Soviet Union belong to the First
World
• Japan, Europe, Australia, and Canada, belong to
the Second World.
• China is the Third World
• First world consisted of the superpowers
• (USA, Russia)
• Nuclear weapon
• Rich countries
• The second world of the wealthy allies of the
superpowers
• (Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada)
• Limited amount of Nuclear weapon
• Third world of the nonaligned nations. (China)
• The two super-powers were the main source of
instability,hegemonism, power politics
• China firmly supported the third world countries in
their struggles against hegemonism
• China suported the second world against
interference and control by the super-powers
Deng Xiaoping’s pragmatic
foreign policy
• Gang of Four; “Wise Leader” Hua Guofeng;
Deng’s second rehabilitation
• Beginning of domestic reforms
• Reassessing dangers of world war
• Awareness of China’s weaknesses and
vulnerability
• Building a stronger and broader anti-Soviet
coalition
January 8, 1976, Premier Zhou Enlai died. The 14th
memorial service was held at Beijing's Great Hall,
Deng Xiaoping delivered a memorial speech
• Mao's death in September 1976 set off a scramble
for succession
• Hua Guofeng was confirmed as Party Chairman
and Premier
• A month after Mao's death, Hua, backed by the
PLA, arrested "Gang of Four"
Mao’s death - 1976
7
September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died in Beijing.
• After extensive deliberations, the Chinese
leadership reinstated Deng Xiaoping to all of his
previous posts at the 11th Party Congress in
August 1977.
• Deng then led the effort to place government
control in the hands of veteran party officials
opposed to the radical excesses of the previous two
decades. A new era of Chinese politics and foreign
policy began.
China after Mao
Gang of Four - 1976
• The members consisted:
• Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's last wife
• Zhang Chunqiao,Yao Wenyuan, Wang Hongwen
• Take control of China
• Attempted Coup
• Supported by Mao's son Mao Yuanxin
Hua Guofeng
• Mao Zedong's designated successor as the
paramount leader of the Communist Party of
China and the People's Republic of China
• Hua succeeded Zhou Enlai as the second Premier
of the People's Republic of China.
• Hua Guofeng criticized certain aspects of the
Cultural Revolution blaming the Gang of Four
• On October 1979, Hua went on a European tour
(West Germany and France), the first of its kind
for a Chinese leader after 1949
Zhou Enlai
• First Premier of the People's Republic of China,
serving from 1949-1976- until his death Zhou as
• The Chinese foreign minister (1949 to 1958) (peaceful
coexistence with west)
• Zhou and the Gang of Four struggled over
leadership of China
• Zhou died eight months before Mao
What were the main features of Chinese foreign
policy during the Mao years (the first three
decades of the PRC)?
Quiz