On the Ten Major Relationships ( simplified Chinese : 论十大关系 ; traditional Chinese : 論十大關係 ; pinyin : lùn shídà guānxì ) is a speech by Mao Zedong which outlines how the People's Republic of China would construct socialism different from the model of development undertaken by the Soviet Union . It was delivered by Mao during an enlarged session of a Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party on April 25, 1956, and further elaborated in the 7th Supreme State Conference on May 2 the same year.
200-627: In official account, the speech is celebrated as the landmark of the search for an alternative mode of socialist development that fit the specific conditions in China and it also marks the beginning of Mao's denouncement of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s. In fewer than 13,000 words in Chinese (10,000 in English translation), Mao stressed that China had to avoid repeating "certain defects and errors that occurred in
400-547: A socialist internationalism and coherent ideological framework which gave impetus to the signing of the treaty, and according to Stalin, China's enrollment "formed a strong, united socialist camp to confront the capitalist camp" and constituted a socialist international cooperation framework more genuine than the capitalist one. On December 6, Mao travelled by train to Moscow , along with Chen Boda , Mao's chief secretary for political and ideological affairs, Ye Siluo, Mao's private secretary for secret affairs; Wang Dongxing , who
600-887: A U-2 spy plane , the CIA 's photographing of military bases in the USSR; aerial espionage that the US said had been discontinued. In Paris, at the Four Powers Summit meeting, Khrushchev demanded and failed to receive Eisenhower's apology for the CIA's continued aerial espionage of the USSR. In China, Mao and the CCP interpreted Eisenhower's refusal to apologize as disrespectful of the national sovereignty of socialist countries, and held political rallies aggressively demanding Khrushchev's military confrontation with US aggressors; without such decisive action, Khrushchev lost face with
800-443: A devastating effect on the country's economic activities. In the early 1950s, there were already incidents of peasants committing suicide or resisting the state collection despite Chen Yun 's urge of caution. As seen from the official figures, grain shortage in spring (chunhuang 春荒) might not be the most direct cause of unnatural death, as years with higher shortage could actually have fewer unnatural death. Instead, natural disaster and
1000-585: A dramatic event happened during the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in February 1956, as Nikita Khrushchev made the " Secret Speech " of denouncing the personality cult and dictatorship of Joseph Stalin . Chinese Communist Zhu De and Deng Xiaoping attended the congress and were surprised by the length that Khrushchev went into denouncing Stalin. Furthermore, the Soviet Union had begun to implement its 6th Five-year Plan for 1956–1960. On
1200-546: A formal acknowledgement of Stalin's economic unfairness to the PRC, fifteen industrial-development projects, and exchanges of technicians (c. 10,000) and political advisors (c. 1,500), whilst Chinese labourers were sent to fill shortages of manual workers in Siberia . Despite this, Mao and Khrushchev disliked each other, both personally and ideologically. However, by 1955, consequent to Khrushchev's having repaired Soviet relations with Mao and
1400-442: A great and splendid socialist state. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is our best teacher and we must learn from it. The situation both at home and abroad is in our favour, we can rely fully on the weapon of the people's democratic dictatorship, unite the people throughout the country, the reactionaries excepted, and advance steadily to our goal." Following Mao's visit to Moscow from late 1949 to early 1950, on February 14, 1950,
1600-486: A halt because of the paralyzed electricity grid. The leaders of the CCP well understood the situation they faced, namely, lacking not only financial assistance, equipment, and industrial plants but also competent specialist capable of directing, managing, and restarting the national economy and industrial production. Anastas Mikoyan , a Soviet diplomat and the politburo member of the CPSU responsible for negotiation with Mao about
1800-424: A harmonious relation with ethnic minorities. The situation in China was that Han population was the majority, but they occupied relatively a lower portion of land and the ethnic minorities occupied the majority of the land. The party hence needed to keep reviewing their own policy to eliminate the influences of the old time and devise systems of economic management and finance for the minority nationalities. This part
2000-544: A leader, a political purpose, and a social function, the ideologically discrete units of Red Guards soon degenerated into political factions, each of whom claimed to be more Maoist than the other factions. In establishing the ideological orthodoxy presented in the Little Red Book ( Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung ), the political violence of the Red Guards provoked civil war in parts of China, which Mao suppressed with
2200-479: A model nuclear bomb to China. By this time, the Soviets had already helped create the foundations of China's nuclear weapons program. Throughout the 1950s, Khrushchev maintained positive Sino-Soviet relations with foreign aid, especially nuclear technology for the Chinese atomic bomb project, Project 596 . However, political tensions persisted because the economic benefits of the USSR's peaceful-coexistence policy voided
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#17328560780962400-661: A new treaty with the Soviet Union was one of the main goals for Mao. On the other hand, Stalin preferred the existing treaty with the KMT to remain in force. Stalin argued that the agreement in the treaty was regulated by the Yalta agreement , such as the administration of the Kuril Islands , Southern Sakhalin , and Port Arthur . In other words, the conclusion of the treaty was approved by the United States and Britain, so changes in any points of
2600-531: A new treaty. The two sides also reached an agreement on the issues of Port Arthur, and Stalin agreed to withdraw troops from Port Arthur. However, the two parties did not settle on a complete agreement about the Chinese Changchun Railway (CCR). Although Stalin agreed to shorten the length of the CCR agreement of 1945, Stalin turned down China's request to pass the management of the railroad to China and increase
2800-617: A peace treaty with Japan in conjunction with other allied powers of WWII. Article 3. The signatories should not participate in coalition and alliance directed against the other. Article 4. Mutual consultation on major issues concerning the essential interest of the signing parties. Article 5. The two parties agreed to adhere to the principles of "equal rights, mutual interests, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and non-intervention ," facilitation of close cooperation, rendering economic and industrial assistance and would strive for strengthening friendship between China and
3000-561: A peasant revolution against foreign imperialism. In socialist solidarity, the PRC allowed safe passage for the Soviet Union's matériel to North Vietnam to prosecute the war against the US-sponsored Republic of Vietnam , until 1968, after the Chinese withdrawal. In the late 1960s, the continual quarrelling between the CCP and the CPSU about the correct interpretations and applications of Marxism–Leninism escalated to small-scale warfare at
3200-493: A second Tito defying Soviet will after the recovery from the war. Although the $ 300 million was materialized in the end, the agreement came with much more stringent conditions than those signed between the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries. For example, the Soviet treaty concluded with Eastern European countries spoke in terms of "immediately giving all available military and other assistance". However, Stalin revised
3400-512: A series of preparations, the negotiation finally took place on the evening of January 22. The participants from the Soviet side were Stalin, Molotov , Malenkov , Mikoyan , Vyshinsky , and Fedorenko ; Chinese participants included Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Li Fuchun , Wang Jiaxiang , Chen Boda , and Shi Zhe . The negotiation reached an agreement between both parties that the Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of August 14, 1945 needed to be replaced by
3600-626: A speech on "twelve major relationships" of socialist development, echoing what Mao had stressed nearly 40 years earlier, though much less significance was attached to the speech. Jiang's twelve relationships overlap with some of Mao's. On the Ten Major Relationships and On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People ( 关于正确处理人民内部矛盾的问题 ) were two important speeches that Mao delivered after 1949. The latter, delivered in February 1957,
3800-547: A speech on the ten major relationships and it became the focus for the rest of the meeting. After the founding of the new country in 1949, the party had consolidated its control over Chinese society through mass campaigns like Land Reform (1947–1952) , the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries (1950–1953) , the Three-Anti and Five-Anti Campaigns (1951–1952) , the Campaign to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950–1953) , and
4000-503: A theoretician of communism, in the article "The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung", and about the CCP's communist revolution, in the 1948 book Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder Out of China: An Intimate Account of the Liberated Areas in China , which reports that Mao's intellectual achievement was "to change Marxism from a European [form] to an Asiatic form . . . in ways of which neither Marx nor Lenin could dream." In 1950, Mao and Stalin safeguarded
4200-479: A year or two, for three or five years, we shall eventually master it. At first some of the Soviet Communists also were not very good at handling economic matters and the imperialists awaited their failure too. But the Communist Party of the Soviet Union emerged victorious and, under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, it learned not only how to make the revolution but also how to carry on construction. It has built
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#17328560780964400-681: Is consistent with the standpoint of the CCP Central Committee at that time. Immediately following, Mao addressed his concerns towards the Treaty of Friendship and Alliance signed between the Chinese Nationalist government and the Soviet Union in August 1945, which Liu Shaoqi also raised in July 1949 prior to Mao's arrival. Therefore, the CCP attached great importance to this issue, and the conclusion of
4600-399: Is the most liberal of the ten major relationships, as Mao opined that the existence of other political parties could serve the party well by providing supervision. Though democratic parties were composed of the national bourgeoisies and intellectuals, they offered "well-intentioned criticisms." Even if the criticism was abusive, the party could refute by rational responses. Mao then envisioned
4800-474: The Chinese people . Mao's Sinification of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought , established political pragmatism as the first priority for realizing the accelerated modernization of a country and a people, and ideological orthodoxy as the secondary priority because Orthodox Marxism originated for practical application to the socio-economic conditions of industrialized Western Europe in the 19th century. During
5000-655: The Empire of Japan from the Republic of China . To that end, the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin , ordered Mao Zedong , leader of the CCP, to co-operate with Chiang Kai-shek , leader of the KMT, in fighting the Japanese. Following the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II , both parties resumed their civil war, which the communists won by 1949. At World War II's conclusion, Stalin advised Mao not to seize political power at that time, and, instead, to collaborate with Chiang due to
5200-578: The Korean War , although it later moved more decisively towards the USSR after Deng Xiaoping 's Chinese economic reform . The Italian Communist Party (PCI), one of the largest and most politically influential communist parties in Western Europe, adopted an ambivalent stance towards Mao's split from the USSR. Although the PCI chastised Mao for breaking the previous global unity of socialist states and criticised
5400-458: The Kremlin told Mao that Stalin was not at home and tried to arrange Mao with Stalin's associates instead. Mao decided to keep waiting. With rumours of Mao being held by Stalin secretly spreading, the two parties finally agreed to act in accordance to address the rumours. They decided to invite Mao for an interview with Soviet press TASS . The interview also marked a turning point in the discussion of
5600-460: The Marshall Plan , which Mao considered a pretense of exploitation and the US agenda to exert political influence into the recipient countries. For China, materializing rapid industrialization through economic assistance was one of the primary goals, which rendered the need for Soviet economic and technological assistance the driving force behind the 1950 treaty. When faced with the choice between
5800-585: The People's Liberation Army (PLA), who imprisoned the fractious Red Guards. Moreover, when Red Guard factionalism occurred within the PLA – Mao's base of political power – he dissolved the Red Guards, and then reconstituted the CCP with the new generation of Maoists who had endured and survived the Cultural Revolution that purged the "anti-communist" old generation from the party and from China. As social engineering,
6000-573: The Sino-Soviet border , and ceasing their support of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia . The expiration of the treaty allowed China to attack Vietnam , a Soviet ally, in the Third Indochina War as a response to Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia since the treaty had prevented China from attacking Soviet allies. At the end of World War II , Joseph Stalin identified two strategic objectives for
6200-626: The Sino-Soviet border . In 1966, for diplomatic resolution, the Chinese revisited the national matter of the Sino-Soviet border demarcated in the 19th century, but originally imposed upon the Qing dynasty by way of unequal treaties that annexed Chinese territory to the Russian Empire . Despite not asking the return of territory, the PRC asked the USSR to acknowledge formally and publicly that such an historic injustice against China (the 19th-century border)
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6400-698: The Soviet Union in the Far East after the war: the independence of Outer Mongolia from China and restoration of the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia in Northeast China to ensure its geopolitical territorial security. To this end, Roosevelt , Stalin, and Churchill reached an agreement on February 11, 1945, at the Yalta Conference in which the Soviet Union recognized the Kuomintang (KMT) government as
6600-548: The Soviet–Albanian split . In response to this rebuke, on the 19 October the delegation representing China at the Party Congress led by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai sharply criticised Moscow's stance towards Tirana: "We hold that should a dispute or difference unfortunately arise between fraternal parties or fraternal countries, it should be resolved patiently in the spirit of proletarian internationalism and according to
6800-530: The Sufan Movement (1955) . The government also completed the Ethnic Classification in 1954 which aimed at sorting and categorizing the hundreds of distinct ethnic communities within the country, the result of which served as the basis for future policy on nationalities. In terms of economic development, China had followed the Soviet model of socialism ever since Mao's decision to lean on the side of
7000-592: The USSR . Article 6. The treaty would be in effect for thirty years, and if no party voices objection to the treaty one year before expiration, the treaty should automatically be extended for another five years. Both sides agreed on a complete transfer of all the rights and associated properties of the Changchun Railway back to China free of charge until the conclusion of a peace treaty with Japan but no later than 1952. The Soviet Union would withdraw its troops from
7200-528: The Zhenbao Island incident , and Tielieketi . Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance ( Russian : Советско-китайский договор о дружбе, союзе и взаимной помощи, simplified Chinese : 中苏友好同盟互助条约 ; traditional Chinese : 中蘇友好同盟互助條約 ; pinyin : Zhōng-Sū Yǒuhǎo Tóngméng Hùzhù Tiáoyuē ), or Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance for short,
7400-505: The 1945 USSR–KMT Treaty of Friendship and Alliance . Mao obeyed Stalin in communist solidarity. Three months after the Japanese surrender, in November 1945, when Chiang opposed the annexation of Tannu Uriankhai (Mongolia) to the USSR, Stalin broke the treaty requiring the Red Army's withdrawal from Manchuria (giving Mao regional control) and ordered Soviet commander Rodion Malinovsky to give
7600-591: The American-led Western Bloc and the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc , Mao chose to side with the Soviet Union because of ideological proximity. In contrast to the Marshall Plan bearing "imperialist" and "interventionist" connotations, Soviet aid was framed as international support from the world proletariat revolutionary forces. The fraternal relationship between China and the Soviet Union embodied
7800-422: The CCP of China and the Soviet Union. For China, the aim was to secure Soviet economic assistance for domestic development and replace the 1945 Sino-Soviet Treaty signed between the KMT government and the Soviet Union. Despite the successful military campaigns ousting KMT presence in the mainland, years of prolonged warfare left the communist regime with the devastated industrial base, part of which resulted from
8000-551: The CCP were met with well-equipped KMT armoured warships , and landing troops had to fight without air cover. The lack of air force capable of interception led to frequent and unimpeded KMT airstrikes against industrial targets following the seizures of large cities by the CCP, which elevated the importance of Soviet support in building a national air force and navy . In the early stage of the negotiation, Zhu De proposed buying 100 aircraft, 100-200 helicopters 40-80 bombers, as well as training 1,000 Chinese pilots and 300 personnel at
8200-617: The Chinese Civil War in 1947, Mao dispatched American journalist Anna Louise Strong to the West, bearing political documents explaining China's socialist future, and asked that she "show them to Party leaders in the United States and Europe", for their better understanding of the Chinese Communist Revolution , but that it was not "necessary to take them to Moscow." Mao trusted Strong because of her positive reportage about him, as
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8400-446: The Chinese civil war, Mao was especially sensitive to ideological shifts that might undermine the CCP. In an era saturated by this form of ideological instability, Khrushchev's anti-Stalinism was particularly impactful to Mao. Mao saw himself as a descendent in a long Marxist-Leninist lineage of which Stalin was the most recent figurehead. Chinese leaders began to associate Stalin's successor with anti-party elements within China. Khrushchev
8600-476: The Chinese communists the Japanese leftover weapons. In the five-year post-World War II period, the United States partly financed Chiang, his nationalist political party, and the National Revolutionary Army . However, Washington put heavy pressure on Chiang to form a joint government with the communists. US envoy George Marshall spent 13 months in China trying without success to broker peace. In
8800-476: The Chinese foreign policy principle of non-interventionism , which subsequently became a central principle of Chinese foreign policy after its inclusion in the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence . What came along with the Soviet aid was a rigid and overly centralized power structure and planned economy . From the ideological perspective, any attempt to acknowledge the positive role of market mechanism
9000-427: The Chinese side, Soviet aid constituted the most important and viable means for reconstruction and recovery. China thus faced a trade-off between aid and revision of the independence of Outer Mongolia acknowledged in the Sino-Soviet treaty signed by the KMT government. There was also uneasiness around creating Sino-Soviet joint ventures, which Mao believed embodied certain degrees of Soviet paternalism and distrust. Also,
9200-508: The Chinese, 60% of the PRC's exports went to the USSR, by way of the five-year plans of China begun in 1953. In early 1956, Sino-Soviet relations began deteriorating, following Khrushchev's de-Stalinization of the USSR, which he initiated with the speech On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences that criticized Stalin and Stalinism – especially the Great Purge of Soviet society, of
9400-507: The Chinese. China stated that its goal was the resumption of ambassadorial talks that had started after the First Taiwan Strait Crisis while simultaneously framing the crisis as the start of a nuclear war with the capitalist bloc. Chinese nuclear brinkmanship was a threat to peaceful coexistence. The crisis and ongoing nuclear disarmament talks with the US helped to convince the Soviets to renege on its 1957 commitment to deliver
9600-460: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union ; each ideological stance perpetuated the Sino-Soviet split. In 1964, Mao said that, in light of the Chinese and Soviet differences about the interpretation and practical application of Orthodox Marxism, a counter-revolution had occurred and re-established capitalism in the USSR; consequently, following Soviet suit, the Warsaw Pact countries broke relations with
9800-510: The Cultural Revolution and for the same reason Mao again disagreed to publish the speech. During the 2nd National Convention for Learning from Dazhai in Agriculture held in December 1976, the speech was chosen as a learning document. On the last day of the meeting, the article was published on People's Daily in full text and a nationwide learning campaign followed. The speech was also included in
10000-519: The Cultural Revolution brought about by him, it simultaneously applauded and heaped praise on him for the People's Republic of China's enormous assistance to North Vietnam in its war against South Vietnam and the United States. As a Marxist–Leninist, Mao was much angered that Khrushchev did not go to war with the US over their failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and the United States embargo against Cuba of continual economic and agricultural sabotage. For
10200-477: The Cultural Revolution reasserted the political primacy of Maoism , but also stressed, strained, and broke the PRC's relations with the USSR and the West. Geopolitically, despite their querulous "Maoism vs. Marxism–Leninism" disputes about interpretations and practical applications of Marxism-Leninism, the USSR and the PRC advised, aided, and supplied North Vietnam during the Vietnam War , which Mao had defined as
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#173285607809610400-514: The Eastern Bloc, Mao addressed those Sino-Soviet matters in "Nine Letters" critical of Khrushchev and his leadership of the USSR. Moreover, the break with the USSR allowed Mao to reorient the development of the PRC with formal relations (diplomatic, economic, political) with the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the 1960s, the Sino-Soviet split allowed only written communications between
10600-602: The Eastern Bloc, the Chinese Communist Party denounced the USSR's de-Stalinization as revisionism , and reaffirmed the Stalinist ideology, policies, and practices of Mao's government as the correct course for achieving socialism in China. This event, indicating Sino-Soviet divergences of Marxist–Leninist practice and interpretation, began fracturing "monolithic communism" — the Western perception of absolute ideological unity in
10800-563: The Eastern Bloc. From Mao's perspective, the success of the Soviet foreign policy of peaceful coexistence with the West would geopolitically isolate the PRC; whilst the Hungarian Revolution indicated the possibility of revolt in the PRC, and in China's sphere of influence. To thwart such discontent, Mao launched in 1956 the Hundred Flowers Campaign of political liberalization – the freedom of speech to criticize government,
11000-592: The KMT. After that, in order to force the Chinese Nationalist government to accept Soviet terms, the Soviet Red Army had entered northeast China in large numbers, and the KMT government led by Chiang was forced to agree on the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance . Later, after the victory of the CCP in the Chinese Civil War , fundamentally changed the pattern of Asia and the Far East forcing
11200-524: The Marshall Plan and Truman's Point Four Program manifested the great power competition for spheres of influence under the cold war framework and mentality through which the Soviet Union managed to secure China's newly emerged communist regime safeguarding its interest in the Far East. On the other hand, in the diplomatic exchanges between the two sides, Chinese leaders often appealed to the merit of "Sinicization of Marxism ", including "peasant encirclement of
11400-590: The PRC and the USSR, in which each country supported their geopolitical actions with formal statements of Marxist–Leninist ideology as the true road to world communism , which is the general line of the party . In June 1963, the PRC published The Chinese Communist Party's Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement , to which the USSR replied with the Open Letter of
11600-452: The PRC recognized the independence of the Mongolian People's Republic . Despite the favourable terms, the treaty of socialist friendship included the PRC in the geopolitical hegemony of the USSR, but unlike the governments of the Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, the USSR did not control Mao's government. In six years, the great differences between the Soviet and the Chinese interpretations and applications of Marxism–Leninism voided
11800-435: The PRC's nuclear-weapons program, Project 596 , was nascent, and Mao perceived the test-ban treaty as the nuclear powers' attempt to thwart the PRC's becoming a nuclear superpower. Between 6 and 20 July 1963, a series of Soviet-Chinese negotiations were held in Moscow. However, both sides maintained their own ideological views and, therefore, negotiations failed. In March 1964, the Romanian Workers' Party publicly announced
12000-562: The PRC, which cancelled some 200 joint scientific projects. In response, Mao justified his belief that Khrushchev had somehow caused China's great economic failures and the famines that occurred in the period of the Great Leap Forward. Nonetheless, the PRC and the USSR remained pragmatic allies, which allowed Mao to alleviate famine in China and to resolve Sino-Indian border disputes. To Mao, Khrushchev had lost political authority and ideological credibility, because his US-Soviet détente had resulted in successful military (aerial) espionage against
12200-489: The PRC. In the Romanian capital of Bucharest , at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties (November 1960), Mao and Khrushchev respectively attacked the Soviet and the Chinese interpretations of Marxism-Leninism as the wrong road to world socialism in the USSR and in China. Mao said that Khrushchev's emphases on consumer goods and material plenty would make the Soviets ideologically soft and un-revolutionary, to which Khrushchev replied: "If we could promise
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#173285607809612400-429: The PRC. In late 1964, after Nikita Khrushchev had been deposed, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai met with the new Soviet leaders, First Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and Premier Alexei Kosygin , but their ideological differences proved a diplomatic impasse to renewed economic relations. The Soviet defense minister's statement damaged the prospects of improved Sino-Soviet relations. Historian Daniel Leese noted that improvement of
12600-614: The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship. In 1953, guided by Soviet economists, the PRC applied the USSR's model of planned economy , which gave first priority to the development of heavy industry , and second priority to the production of consumer goods. Later, ignoring the guidance of technical advisors, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward to transform agrarian China into an industrialized country with disastrous results for people and land. Mao's unrealistic goals for agricultural production went unfulfilled because of poor planning and realization, which aggravated rural starvation and increased
12800-489: The Sino-Soviet disputes from the political-party level to the national-government level. In late 1962, the PRC broke relations with the USSR because Khrushchev did not go to war with the US over the Cuban Missile Crisis . Regarding that Soviet loss-of-face, Mao said that "Khrushchev has moved from adventurism to capitulationism" with a negotiated, bilateral, military stand-down. Khrushchev replied that Mao's belligerent foreign policies would lead to an East–West nuclear war. For
13000-402: The Sino-Soviet split was a question of who would lead the revolution for world communism , and to whom (China or the USSR) the vanguard parties of the world would turn for political advice, financial aid, and military assistance. In that vein, both countries competed for the leadership of world communism through the vanguard parties native to the countries in their spheres of influence . In
13200-413: The Soviet Union . As his speech On the People's Democratic Dictatorship ( 论人民民主专政 ) in June 1949 states, "We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and conscientiously. We must not pretend to know when we do not know. We must not put on bureaucratic airs. If we dig into a subject for several months, for
13400-444: The Soviet Union to reassess and adjust its policy towards China. The demands of China and the Soviet Union were common and mutual in some respects. To enhance the strength of the communist bloc against the US-led capitalist world in the international system of the Cold War , Stalin saw China under the leadership of CCP as a viable partner in checking US encroachment on the Soviet sphere of influence in East Asia . The CCP also needed
13600-420: The Soviet Union where peasants were exploited heavily by the state, China had a good relation with the peasants, though the Chinese Communist Party made a huge purchase of grain despite the floods in 1954 which made the peasants disgruntled. The policies of low agricultural tax, purchasing agricultural productions at standard prices, and subsidizing the grain sale to grain-deficient areas prevented China from making
13800-429: The Soviet Union's support and assistance in its struggle to consolidate its rule and curb the attempts of the United States to overthrow the communist regime. Although the CCP won the final victory, many problems were left by the war. Therefore, China needed assistance from the Soviet Union in reconstruction, economic development and industrial production. Moreover, the ideological opposition and hostility between China and
14000-484: The Soviet Union, Mao said that the "assessment of 30 per cent for mistakes and 70 per cent for achievements" for Stalin was "just about right." He then recounted the history of Wang Ming's "left adventurism" and "right opportunism" in the early history of the Chinese Communist Party which could be traced back to Stalin. In terms of socialist construction, Mao warned against the dogmatic following of Marxism–Leninism and applied their doctrines creatively. Lastly, Mao summed up
14200-443: The Soviet Union, those who once extolled Stalin to the skies have now in one swoop consigned him to purgatory. Here in China some people are following their example." Shen Zhihua suggests that the criticism of personality cult of Stalin led to the removal of Mao Zedong Thought from the 8th party congress. The party constitution in the congress did not mention Mao Zedong Thought and all top party leaders did not mention it as well, which
14400-444: The Soviet Union. Mao also expressed his hope in Soviet air support for the planned attack on Taiwan but was rejected by Stalin for it would give the US an excuse to intervene. In his "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" published on July 1, 1949, Mao articulated the " leaning to one side " foreign policy directive, in which he framed a world divided between the confrontational Socialist and imperialist camps and that "sitting on
14600-421: The Soviet Union. The development led to the concerns from top Chinese leaders. After the 20th Soviet party congress, personality cult became an even more sensitive issue and invited the speculation of whether there was personality cult in China. At local level, cadres started to raise doubt about the excessive praise given to Mao and internationally socialist countries also became cautious about personality cult. Yet
14800-431: The Soviet loan was not for free. Stalin demanded the entirety of Chinese surplus production of strategically important resources to be sold to the Soviet Union as repayment. Between 1954 and 1959, China supplied 160,000 tons of tungsten ore, 110,000 tons of copper , 30,000 tons of antimony , and 90,000 tons of rubber to the Soviet Union . Nevertheless, given the stake of this treaty for both sides, none of these impeded
15000-421: The Soviet path of socialist development. Political scientist Frederick C. Teiwes believes that the thorough investigation of China's situations in 1956 had urged top Chinese leaders to examine the shortcomings of the Soviet model critically and raise doubt about its applicability in China. Despite having a more mature industrial base, the Soviet economy grew slower than the Chinese one. A central change effected by
15200-465: The Soviet-led socialist camp won China its much-needed international support, which offset the effects of economic blockade, embargo of 400 kinds of goods imposed by the capitalist bloc and military threats. The comprehensive aid also altered the industrial landscape of the newly established country. Prior to the treaty's signing, around 70% of China's industries were concentrated in the coastal area of
15400-556: The US-led western camp ruled out the possibility of receiving aid from the west necessitating, the establishment of a stable and predictable diplomatic relationship with the Soviet Union. However, the two parties' leaders had different views on the content and implementation of the treaty. Stalin hoped that the new treaty would remain under the framework of the Yalta agreement , which secured Soviet vested interests in Northeast China . On
15600-505: The USSR and public confrontation with an unapologetic capitalist enemy. Khrushchev's miscalculation of person and circumstance voided US-Soviet diplomacy at the Four Powers Summit in Paris . In late 1961, at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU , the PRC and the USSR revisited their doctrinal disputes about the orthodox interpretation and application of Marxism–Leninism. In December 1961, the USSR broke diplomatic relations with Albania, which escalated
15800-642: The USSR had stationed 12 divisions of soldiers and 200 aeroplanes at that border. By 1968, the Soviet Armed Forces had stationed six divisions of soldiers in Outer Mongolia and 16 divisions, 1,200 aeroplanes, and 120 medium-range missiles at the Sino-Soviet border to confront 47 light divisions of the Chinese Army. By March 1969, the border confrontations escalated , including fighting at the Ussuri River ,
16000-537: The USSR would carry much of the economic burden of the Korean War, but, when Khrushchev came to power, he created a repayment plan under which the PRC would reimburse the Soviet Union within an eight-year period. However, China was experiencing significant food shortages at this time, and, when grain shipments were routed to the Soviet Union instead of feeding the Chinese public, faith in the Soviets plummeted. These policy changes were interpreted as Khrushchev's abandonment of
16200-464: The West. The CCP said that the CPSU concentrated too much on "Soviet–US co-operation for the domination of the world", with geopolitical actions that contradicted Marxism–Leninism. The final face-to-face meeting between Mao and Khruschev took place on 2 October 1959, when Khrushchev visited Beijing to mark the 10th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution. By this point relations had deteriorated to
16400-531: The Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc . In addition, Beijing resented the Soviet Union's growing ties with India due to factors such as the Sino-Indian border dispute , and Moscow feared that Mao was too nonchalant about the horrors of nuclear warfare . In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Joseph Stalin and Stalinism in the speech " On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences " and began
16600-501: The Western perception that the communist nations were collectively united and would not have significant ideological clashes. However, the USSR and China both continued to cooperate with North Vietnam during the Vietnam War into the 1970s, despite rivalry elsewhere. Historically, the Sino-Soviet split facilitated the Marxist–Leninist Realpolitik with which Mao established the tri-polar geopolitics (PRC–USA–USSR) of
16800-662: The Western powers, the averted atomic war threatened by the Cuban Missile Crisis made nuclear disarmament their political priority. To that end, the US, the UK, and the USSR agreed to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which formally forbade nuclear-detonation tests in the Earth's atmosphere , in outer space , and under water – yet did allow the underground testing and detonation of atomic bombs. In that time,
17000-551: The Western world, the Sino-Soviet split transformed the bi-polar cold war into a tri-polar one. The rivalry facilitated Mao's realization of Sino-American rapprochement with the US President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972 . In the West, the policies of triangular diplomacy and linkage emerged. Like the Tito–Stalin split , the occurrence of the Sino-Soviet split also weakened the concept of monolithic communism,
17200-452: The aid agreement to "provide all possible economic assistance" and imposed more stringent conditions on the treatments of Soviet experts. Also, technological assistance regarding nuclear weapons was held off until the Khrushchev era. According to Mao, it was only after the Korean War that China won the trust of the Soviet Union, followed by more aid, cooperation and the 156 Projects. On
17400-420: The aid, reported that his Chinese comrades were politically sophisticated but had severely limited information about economic mechanisms and information. The military occupation of Taiwan was given top priority during the later phase of the civil war and constituted the primary source of hostility between China and the US when communist victory seemed inevitable. However, a significant obstacle to seizing Taiwan
17600-463: The amount of grain to be purchased, so as to lighten the burden on peasants. During the period, the shortage of grain for peasants was a serious problem for the state which tried to maintain a low ratio of 30% in the purchase of grain. Chen Yun advocated a higher purchase ratio, which was opposed to Mao's view of maintaining a low ratio, as he knew that placing too much pressure on peasants would be counterproductive. But from 1953 onwards, Mao agreed with
17800-407: The associated properties temporarily administered by the Soviet Union under a joint commission composed of representatives from both parties. A loan of $ 60 million a year and $ 300 million in total at the interest rate of 1 percent per year was granted to China starting from January 1950, in the form of railways, industrial infrastructure, equipment, and materials for reconstruction and recovery from
18000-468: The base of the site, one of which read "Dedicated to the great Marxist, Comrade Stalin". On 23 October, the Chinese delegation left Moscow for Beijing early, before the Congress' conclusion; within days, Khrushchev had Stalin's body removed from the mausoleum. In 1960, Mao expected Khrushchev to deal aggressively with US President Dwight D. Eisenhower by holding him to account for the USSR having shot down
18200-479: The belligerent PRC's geopolitical credibility among the nations under Chinese hegemony, especially after a failed PRC–US rapprochement. In the Chinese sphere of influence, that Sino-American diplomatic failure and the presence of US nuclear weapons in Taiwan justified Mao's confrontational foreign policies with Taiwan. In late 1958, the CCP revived Mao's guerrilla-period cult of personality to portray Chairman Mao as
18400-570: The burden exerted on peasants changed gradually from considering to exploitative because of two factors: 1) the implementation of the First Five-year plan in 1953, and 2) the overall and long-term benefit of the state. The state collection of grain had been a strenuous issue for the new regime considering the fact that the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945) and the Civil War (1946–1949) had caused
18600-402: The bureaucracy, and the CCP publicly. However, the campaign proved too successful when blunt criticism of Mao was voiced . Consequent to the relative freedoms of the de-Stalinized USSR, Mao retained the Stalinist model of Marxist–Leninist economy, government, and society. Ideological differences between Mao and Khrushchev compounded the insecurity of the new communist leader in China. Following
18800-531: The change of leadership, the Sino-Soviet split remained open. At the Glassboro Summit Conference , between Kosygin and US President Lyndon B. Johnson , the PRC accused the USSR of betraying the peoples of the Eastern bloc countries. The official interpretation, by Radio Peking , reported that US and Soviet politicians discussed "a great conspiracy, on a worldwide basis ... criminally selling the rights of
19000-634: The charismatic, visionary leader solely qualified to control the policy, administration, and popular mobilization required to realize the Great Leap Forward to industrialize China. Moreover, to the Eastern Bloc, Mao portrayed the PRC's warfare with Taiwan and the accelerated modernization of the Great Leap Forward as Stalinist examples of Marxism–Leninism adapted to Chinese conditions. These circumstances allowed ideological Sino-Soviet competition, and Mao publicly criticized Khrushchev's economic and foreign policies as deviations from Marxism–Leninism. To Mao,
19200-458: The cities", "land revolution", and "secret and open struggle within cities", which were adaptations based on Chinese context and significantly diverged from the orthodox Soviet interpretation of Marxism-Leninism . These sowed the seeds for the Sino-Soviet split in the late 50s and early 60s. Austin Jersild, in his The Sino-Soviet Alliance: An International History , offers a similar perspective that
19400-518: The cities, private factories and shops were either turned into cooperatives or nationalized in the name of joint public-private ownership. Regarding to the Soviet Union's leadership in the socialist camp, the Tito-Stalin Split broke out in 1948, followed by the Informbiro period that ended at 1955, signaling the end of the Soviet Union's intolerance of alternative socialist development. In Moscow,
19600-550: The communist project and the nations' shared identity as Marxist-Leninists. As a result, Khrushchev became Mao's scapegoat during China's food crisis. In the first half of 1958, Chinese domestic politics developed an anti-Soviet tone from the ideological disagreement over de-Stalinization and the radicalization that preceded the Great Leap Forward . It coincided with greater Chinese sensitivity over matters of sovereignty and control over foreign policy - particularly where Taiwan
19800-470: The concluding three-year period of the Chinese Civil War, the CCP defeated and expelled the KMT from mainland China. Consequently, the KMT retreated to Taiwan in December 1949. As a revolutionary theoretician of communism seeking to realize a socialist state in China, Mao developed and adapted the urban ideology of Orthodox Marxism for practical application to the agrarian conditions of pre-industrial China and
20000-468: The conditions of our country." The published edition in 1976 contained contented which were omitted from the internal edition in 1965, including the criticism on the handling of heavy and light industries and agricultural sector of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, the criticism of Stalin, and other critiques. But the 1976 edition also did not contain all the contents from the speech in 1965. Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split
20200-492: The cost incurred by the abrupt recall of experts by the Soviet side falls on the Soviet Union. China covering a vast territory with rich natural resources endowments was strategically crucial for the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Soviet Union made a huge concession renouncing its vested interest in Northeast China as embodied in the return of the Chinese Changchun Railway, Port Arthur, and Dalian in order to reinforce
20400-480: The course of their [the Soviet Union] building socialism." Covered in the speech are the economic, social, political, and ethnical aspects of building socialism in China. Mao further charted a strategy of forming alliance and splitting enemies in international sphere. The speech was made in front of the party secretaries of various provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, and was subsequently circulated among
20600-489: The criticism of the historical drama Hai Rui Dismissed from Office which was considered the preparation for initiating the Cultural Revolution . The major contents of the speech were on economic issues which were different from the anti-revisionism of the Cultural Revolution and hence Mao did not agree to publish the speech. In 1975 when Deng Xiaoping approached Mao, Deng was restoring the previous practices and negating
20800-441: The de-Stalinization of the USSR. Mao and the Chinese leadership were appalled as the PRC and the USSR progressively diverged in their interpretations and applications of Leninist theory. By 1961, their intractable ideological differences provoked the PRC's formal denunciation of Soviet communism as the work of "revisionist traitors" in the USSR. The PRC also declared the Soviet Union social imperialist . For Eastern Bloc countries,
21000-516: The defence and heavy industry, while the importance of civil and light industry was downplayed and rendered accessories. On the one hand, the signing of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance contributed to a fraternal relationship between the two sides and redressed the post-WWII balance of power between the capitalist and socialist camps. The perception of Russians as benevolent "elder brothers" guiding China on
21200-416: The destruction of war. Soviet specialists were sent to work in Chinese institutions, industries, organizations to assist and advise China's reconstruction, industrialization, and economic development with the fixed duration of work at one year, whose treatments were identical to Chinese technicians. The Chinese side is responsible for travel costs, expenditure, lodging, and wages of the Soviet experts, while
21400-458: The development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the PRC as a country. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against the rule of Moscow was a severe political concern for Mao, because it had required military intervention to suppress, and its occurrence weakened the political legitimacy of the Communist Party to be in government. In response to that discontent among the European members of
21600-467: The development of the interior regions and defense construction, in response to the military threat posed by the escalation of the Vietnam War and the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, China had significantly increased the investment in the interior regions through the Third Front construction projects. Eventually China developed her own nuclear weapons in the mid-1960s. In 1995 Jiang Zemin delivered
21800-472: The disappearance of the party, as the Marxist theory suggested the coming of a stateless society when communism is achieved, and even though a coercive party was needed to suppress counter-revolutionaries, he proposed to streamline the party and the bureaucracy. Though counter-revolutionaries were negative factor, thanks to the policy of the party, some of them had stopped opposing the revolution. Whilst affirming
22000-413: The draft based on the original sound recording was prepared. After reading the revised draft, Mao agreed with its part-wide distribution, but still not its publication. Mao had twice commented on the importance of the speech, in 1958 and 1960 respective, each stressing the search for alternative socialist development. Yet in other occasions, Mao did not value it as highly. In September 1956 when he received
22200-605: The events of the 1958–1959 period indicated that Khrushchev was politically untrustworthy as an orthodox Marxist. In 1959, First Secretary Khrushchev met with US President Dwight Eisenhower to decrease US-Soviet geopolitical tensions. To that end, the USSR: (i) reneged an agreement for technical aid to develop Project 596 , and (ii) sided with India in the Sino-Indian War . Each US-Soviet collaboration offended Mao and he perceived Khrushchev as an opportunist who had become too tolerant of
22400-418: The experts reported back to Moscow their observations and dissatisfaction with the Chinese counterparts. Ten Major Relationships , along with On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People , was an important part of the theoretical efforts to incorporate Marxism into the Chinese context and China's efforts to develop socialism. Many considered the speech the beginning of Mao's disagreement with
22600-504: The fence will not do, nor is there a third road." Thus, faced with the bleak situation and threats from both within and without, consolidating the communist rule under the Cold War framework of the mid-20th century Mao saw the necessity and benefits in firmly siding with the Soviet Union and joining the socialist camp. He perceived the cooperation within the socialist camp as goodwill and sincere assistance in countries' development in contrast to
22800-411: The fifth volume of Mao's Selected Works, with the following editorial: "Bearing in mind lessons drawn from the Soviet Union, Comrade Mao Tsetung summed up China's experience, dealt with ten major relationships in socialist revolution and socialist construction and set forth the ideas underlying the general line of building socialism with greater, faster, better and more economical results, a line suited to
23000-480: The final agreement. Soviet aid to China, as stipulated in the treaty, played a pivotal role in shaping the Chinese economic system securing the survival of the newly established communist regime and contributed to the recovery from the devastation of prolonged wars, industrialization, and modernization of communist China. Namely, the Soviet aid, both technical expertise and assistance in material forms such as equipment, funds, and infrastructure construction, helped lay
23200-936: The formulation of the ten major relationships was the result of communicating with the cadres in those bureaus. From February 14 to April 24 (1956), Mao listened to the reports from 34 different bureaus, plus the report from the State Planning Commission on the Second Five-year Plan . During those 41 days, Mao listened to reports for four to five hours every day in Zhongnanhai . Other top leaders including Zhou Enlai , Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yun , and Deng Xiaoping had also participated in these meetings and expressed their opinions. The reporting began with heavy industry , then proceeded to light industry , handicraft industry , transportation and telecommunication , agriculture and forestry , finance , and other areas. During
23400-628: The geopolitical scene, China had since 1954 began to foster relations with her Asian neighboring countries like India and Burma. In April 1955, the Bandung Conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia and Zhou Enlai attended the conference as the representative of Communist China, strengthening her role in the African and Asian continents. Mao Zedong summarized the issues related to socialist construction and transformation into ten major relationships. To avoid
23600-411: The groundwork for China's planned economy, state-owned enterprises, and different industries. The massive influx of Soviet aid within a short period replaced the function of capital accumulation essential to the development of economies and significantly reduced the time needed to acquire knowledge and technical skills, which often take practice and study of generations of workers to obtain. Also, joining
23800-544: The guiding thought. After the speech was delivered, the ten major relationships became the guiding thought instead and it was followed up by Liu Shaoqi, Hu Qiaomu , and other top leaders in their preparation for the congress. During the congress Zhou Enlai reported on the proposal for the Second Five-year Plan (1956–1962) and issues highlighted by Mao in the speech, like the ratio of investment between heavy and light industries and decentralization, were addressed. After
24000-491: The heavy bombardment of the industrial heartland by the KMT air force in the later phase of the civil war. For example, between October 1949 and February 1950, the KMT Air Force carried out 26 airstrikes against military and industrial targets in the communist-controlled regions, among which February 6, 1950, bombardment of Shanghai was most effective, inflicting heavy damage on the local industries and brought production to
24200-407: The idea. The Soviet-Yugoslavia conflict in 1948 had signaled that Stalin would not tolerate alternative socialist path and the Soviet Union remained dominant in the socialist world. After Stalin's death in 1953, however, the pressure from the Soviet Union lessened, yet Mao still had not put forward the use of Mao Zedong Though publicly because of the possible backlash due to the anti-personality cult in
24400-512: The incidents of Gao Gang and Rao Shushi in 1953 reminded the danger of local leaders having too much power, "provided that the policies of the central authorities are not violated, the local authorities may work out rules, regulations and measures in the light of their specific conditions and the needs of their work, and this is in no way prohibited by the Constitution ." Mao said that the party had been able to oppose Han chauvinism and foster
24600-537: The intention of the Bucharest authorities to mediate the Sino-Soviet conflict. In reality, however, the Romanian mediation approach represented only a pretext for forging a Sino-Romanian rapprochement, without arousing the Soviets' suspicions. Romania was neutral in the Sino-Soviet split. Its neutrality along with being the small communist country with the most influence in global affairs enabled Romania to be recognized by
24800-537: The interpretation of orthodox Marxism became specific disputes about the Soviet Union's policies of national de-Stalinization and international peaceful coexistence with the Western Bloc , which Chinese leader Mao Zedong decried as revisionism . Against that ideological background, China took a belligerent stance towards the Western world , and publicly rejected the Soviet Union's policy of peaceful coexistence between
25000-455: The jointly-used naval base at Port Arthur upon concluding a peace treaty with Japan, and the Chinese government would be responsible for the cost of construction and installation incurred by the Soviet Union since 1945. The Joint Sino-Soviet Military Commission with a post-rotation mechanism was to be established overseeing the military affairs until the transfer of ownership. The ownership of Port Dalian would be handed back to China along with
25200-579: The late-period Cold War (1956–1991) to create an anti-Soviet front, which Maoists connected to Three Worlds Theory . According to Lüthi, there is "no documentary evidence that the Chinese or the Soviets thought about their relationship within a triangular framework during the period." During the Second Sino-Japanese War , the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the nationalist Kuomintang party (KMT) set aside their civil war to expel
25400-438: The latest development in the industry. Then from April 18 onwards, Li Fuchun reported to Mao on the Second Five-year Plan. The entire process was Mao's longest and most comprehensive investigation on economic affairs after 1949. In the enlarged Politburo meeting from April 25 to 28, Mao made the speech on its first day. As the original agenda was about issues like agricultural cooperative, attendants did not expect Mao to make such
25600-456: The latter had insulted Mao as being a Chinese nationalist, a geopolitical adventurist, and an ideological deviationist from Marxism-Leninism. In turn, Peng insulted Khrushchev as a revisionist whose régime showed him to be a "patriarchal, arbitrary, and tyrannical" ruler. In the event, Khrushchev denounced the PRC with 80 pages of criticism to the congress of the PRC. In response to the insults, Khrushchev withdrew 1,400 Soviet technicians from
25800-473: The legitimate government of China, regardless of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For the United States , it hoped that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan as soon as possible and support the KMT as the only legal government of China. In return, the United States would help the Soviet Union persuade the KMT to recognize the legal regime of the Soviet Union in Outer Mongolia. At that time,
26000-517: The level where the Chinese were going out of their way to humiliate the Soviet leader - for example, there was no honour guard to greet him, no Chinese leader gave a speech, and when Khrushchev insisted on giving a speech of his own, no microphone was provided. The speech in question would turn out to contain praise of the US President Eisenhower, whom Khrushchev had recently met, obviously an intentional insult to Communist China. The leaders of
26200-520: The market and an unstable currency", the supply of grain, raw materials, and daily necessities were stable in China. He urged to increase the investment in agriculture and light industry so that the accumulation of capital could be enhanced for the development of heavy industry. The focus of this part is the balance between the development in the coastal regions and interior regions, which Mao considered free from major mistakes. Yet he urged to give greater attention to development in coastal regions, because
26400-490: The mechanization of agriculture but it was questioned by the Chinese side due to its insufficiency. Another instance was that the "one-man management" factory system, which placed authority in the hands of the factory manager, was never able to gain prominence in China except in the Northeast where the Soviet influence was strongest. Both practices were graduately abandoned by the Soviet Union. Economist Chris Bramall believes that
26600-571: The middle and top cadres for political study. It was not published until after Mao's death in September 1976. In January 1956 Mao Zedong noticed that Liu Shaoqi was receiving reports from some committees of the State Council and became interested in those reports. Beginning from late last year, Liu was preparing for the political report for the forthcoming party congress and Mao then instructed to arrange different bureaus to report to him. As Mao said,
26800-603: The military threat posed by the United States had subsided and it would be unwise to abandon the coastal regions. He also mentioned in the interior regions industry should be gradually built. Similar to last part, Mao suggested that the threat posed by the United States since the Korean War had subsided and the Chinese armed forces had grown. Though China did not yet have the atom bomb, they would be able to possess it soon. Hence he urged lowering military and administrative expenses in favor of economic construction, which would eventually lead to investment in defense construction. As for
27000-462: The mistakes that the Soviet Union had made, Mao urged to mobilize the "positive elements" of the country, which were the peasants and workers, and turned the "negative elements" of reactionaries as far as possible into positive. Internationally "forces that can be united" were positive whilst reactionary forces were negative. The following are the synopses of the ten relationships, many of which were Mao's urge for balanced development and open criticism of
27200-507: The mistakes the Soviet Union had made. Mao stated that because of the complex situation of China's large population and vast scale, it was better to have both strong central and strong local governments than only a strong central government (as Mao described the Soviet Union). Mao stated that China should not be like the USSR, which Mao described as having a central government that was not flexible enough for local governments to operate. Though
27400-616: The national interests of China and the Soviet Union with the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance . The treaty improved the two countries' geopolitical relationship on political, military and economic levels. Stalin's largesse to Mao included a loan for $ 300 million; military aid, should Japan attack the PRC; and the transfer of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria, Port Arthur and Dalian to Chinese control. In return,
27600-449: The necessity of suppressing the counter-revolutionaries campaign in the early 1950s, Mao distanced himself from the Great Purge of Stalin and insisted that counter-revolutionaries like Hu Feng still existed and hence execution was needed in some cases to safeguard socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat . In this section Mao focused on those who made mistakes in the past, which include "dogmatists headed by Wang Ming " who led
27800-469: The number of deaths caused by the Great Chinese Famine , which resulted from three years of drought and poor weather. An estimated 30 million Chinese people starved to death, more than any other famine in recorded history. Mao and his government largely downplayed the deaths. In 1954, Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev repaired relations between the USSR and the PRC with trade agreements,
28000-439: The other hand, Mao was preoccupied with setting up China's independent foreign image and abolishing all the unequal treaties imposed by imperial powers. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the settlement of the alliance treaty between China and the Soviet Union has become an urgent matter for Chinese leaders to conduct diplomatic activities and make decisions. Therefore, Mao's first consideration on diplomatic issues
28200-472: The party "picking up the bad aspect of Stalin's style of work". Mao used Lu Xun 's " The True Story of Ah Q " to illustrate it was "bad either to bar people outside the Party from the revolution or to prohibit erring comrades inside the Party from making amends." He suggested to observe those Communists who had erred but not those "who cling to their mistakes and fail to mend their ways after repeated admonition". In
28400-403: The peasants "disgruntled, and there were a lot of complaints both inside and outside the Party." In 1955, the amount of grain purchased by the state decreased and there was a good harvest, reversing the peasants' opinion on the party. In historian Yang Kuisong 's analysis, in the 1950s Mao was actually deeply concerned about the livelihood of peasants but his view on the state purchase of grain and
28600-497: The people nothing, except revolution, they would scratch their heads and say: 'Isn't it better to have good goulash? ' " In the 1960s, public displays of acrimonious quarrels about Marxist-Leninist doctrine characterized relations between hardline Stalinist Chinese and post-Stalinist Soviet Communists. At the Romanian Communist Party Congress , the CCP's senior officer Peng Zhen quarrelled with Khrushchev, after
28800-449: The period between April 1956 and June 1957 was Mao at his most conservative and the speech reinstated Mao's economic policy of balanced development which was different from the Soviet emphasis on heavy industry. However, historian Shen Zhihua suggests that for adjusting the ratio of investment between heavy and light industries, altering the plan for industrial development, and improving people's living standard, Mao's development strategy in
29000-577: The personal worship of Mao within the party already began in the Yan'an era , so it had a long historical root in the party. Though the criticism of Stalin relieved Mao of the pressure from the Soviet Union, it also made the personality cult of his own problematic. That is the reason why he highlighted that "in China some people are following their example" as a reminder that Mao was supportive of his own cult, but critical of that of Stalin. Chris Bramall opines that in actual practice Mao did not follow what he stated in
29200-444: The planners was whether such increased led to massive death of peasants, which in 1955 a higher number of unnatural of death was indeed recorded. Other than Internal Reference , Mao also knew about the problem from the democrats who wrote to Mao to report the severity of increased state purchase. As a response, Mao instructed Chen Yun to lower the purchase and for 1955 and a lower amount was purchased. In part ten Mao mentioned that "in
29400-526: The principles of equality and of unanimity through consultation. Public, one-sided censure of any fraternal party does not help unity and is not helpful in resolving problems. To bring a dispute between fraternal parties or fraternal countries into the open in the face of the enemy cannot be regarded as a serious Marxist-Leninist attitude." Subsequently, on 21 October, Zhou visited the Lenin Mausoleum (then still entombing Stalin's body), laying two wreaths at
29600-519: The proposal; Mao was in an ideological furor and would not accept. The meeting ended with an agreement to construct the previously rejected radio station with Soviet loans. Further damage was caused by the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis toward the end of August. China did not notify or consult the Soviet Union before initiating the conflict, contradicting China's previous desire to share information for foreign affairs and violating - at least
29800-457: The prospects for peace. Mao's concern resonated well with Stalin, who responded that there was no direct threat to China from foreign powers since Japan and Germany were still recovering. Most Western countries, including the United States, were reluctant to wage another war. Stalin also claimed that if the two countries work together and maintain friendly relationships, they can guarantee peace for 20 to 25 years, or even longer. Hence, this view
30000-556: The rank-and-file of the Soviet Armed Forces , and of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). In light of de-Stalinization, the CPSU's changed ideological orientation – from Stalin's confrontation of the West to Khrushchev's peaceful coexistence with it – posed problems of ideological credibility and political authority for Mao, who had emulated Stalin's style of leadership and practical application of Marxism–Leninism in
30200-500: The relations "that had seemed possible after Khrushchev's fall evaporated after the Soviet minister of defense, Rodion Malinovsky ... approached Chinese Marshal He Long , member of the Chinese delegation to Moscow, and asked when China would finally get rid of Mao like the CPSU had disposed of Khrushchev." Back in China, Zhou reported to Mao that Brezhnev's Soviet government retained the policy of peaceful coexistence which Mao had denounced as " Khrushchevism without Khrushchev"; despite
30400-490: The relations between the Kuomintang and the CCP were very tense, and Chiang Kai-shek always tended to seek help from the United States and the Soviet Union in dealing with the conflict with the CCP. Thus, although no representative from either party came to the meeting at Yalta , Roosevelt still made it clear that every treaty that included China's problems needed Chiang's approval in the agreement because of his friendship with
30600-413: The relationship between the state and society, Mao urged for more openness and delegation of powers to the individual units of production and producers. Workers should be given improved working conditions and welfare, and increased and more equal wages as a reward for their political consciousness and over-fulfillment of production quotas. Factories should also been given more autonomy in operation. Unlike in
30800-502: The representatives from Yugoslavia, he said that for the speech he just summarized others' opinions and that was not his own creation. In May 1957, he mentioned that if he was not satisfied with some drafts even after revision, they would remained unpublished, indicating that the speech was not up to his standard. Other than the quality of the draft of the speech, another possible reason is the timing of political events. When Liu Shaoqi approached Mao in December 1965, Mao had already approved
31000-507: The request for a new treaty, Mao also received other refusals from Stalin. One of them was the military aid to support the PLA for launching an attack on Taiwan. Stalin argued that military aid from the Soviet Union would give the United States an excuse to intervene. After the celebration of Stalin's 70th birthday, Mao further reinforced his position on concluding a new treaty, yet what he received were more refusals from Stalin. According to Mao himself, Mao tried to reach Stalin several times, but
31200-634: The revolution of [the] Vietnam people, [of the] Arabs, as well as [those of] Asian, African, and Latin-American peoples, to US imperialists". To regain political supremacy in the PRC, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to counter the Soviet-style bureaucracies (personal-power-centres) that had become established in education, agriculture, and industrial management. Abiding Mao's proclamations for universal ideological orthodoxy, schools and universities closed throughout China when students organized themselves into politically radical Red Guards . Lacking
31400-444: The road to modernity enjoined great popularity in Chinese society and political discourse. The treaty provisions also bolstered solidarity within the communist bloc led by the Soviet Union, strengthening it in its confrontation with the capitalist bloc and significantly contributing to China's consolidation of power and ruling legitimacy. Soviet aid to socialist countries and treaty signed with China, coinciding with American aid through
31600-646: The roots of grass to live, we won't take anything from Russia.' China is not guilty of chauvinism , and immediately sent food to our brother country." During his opening speech at the CPSU's 22nd Party Congress on 17 October 1961 in Moscow, Khrushchev once again criticized Albania as a politically backward state and the Albanian Party of Labour as well as its leadership, including Enver Hoxha , for refusing to support reforms against Stalin's legacy, in addition to their criticism of rapprochement with Yugoslavia , leading to
31800-634: The same period, Mao was also involved in the drafting of another document titled On the Historical Experience of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat ( 关于无产阶级专政的历史经验 ), which, published on April 5 on the People's Daily , was an immediate response of the Chinese Communist Party to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . After listening to the first round of reports, from April 12 to 17 Mao visited an exhibition of mechanics to see
32000-557: The same time, withdrew the units in Port Arthur as the CCP had suggested. Mao responded euphemistically that it is necessary to consider the legality of the Yalta Conference; however, within Chinese society, the public believed that since the KMT was already defeated, the existing Treaty of Friendship and Alliance lost its purpose and significance. Stalin, in turn, claimed that the existing treaty would be altered eventually. Similar to
32200-464: The scope for economic cooperation between the two countries. The treaty did not however, prevent relations between Beijing and Moscow from drastically deteriorating in the late 1950s to the early 1960s, during the Sino-Soviet split . After the expiration of the treaty in 1979, Deng Xiaoping wanted China not to negotiate with the Soviets unless they agreed to China's demands such as withdrawing from Afghanistan , removing their troops from Mongolia and
32400-590: The share of Chinese capital. The treaty draft was first delivered from the Soviet side to the Chinese side on January 23, 1950. Immediately, Zhou Enlai responded with a Chinese draft in the evening. The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance of 1950 included the following terms: Prevention of Aggression, International Action for Peace and Security, Clause of Assistance, Prohibition of Alliances, Renunciation of Separate Negotiations with Japan, Clause of Consultation, and Economic and Cultural Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. Both parties agreed that
32600-451: The situations in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries . Mao was concerned about the speed of capital accumulation and the production of the means of production . He was of the opinion that China was on the right course of balancing heavy industry on one hand, and light industry and agriculture on the other. Unlike in the Soviet Union and some Eastern European countries, where the disequilibrium resulted in "a shortage of goods on
32800-566: The socialist camp) and Joseph Stalin 's strategic and ideological considerations pertaining to the extension of Soviet influence in East Asia. Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong travelled to the Soviet Union to sign the treaty, one of only two times in his life that he left China. The treaty laid the groundwork for Sino-Soviet cooperation and partnership. It provided China with security guarantees, and increased
33000-443: The solidarity of the socialist camp in confrontation with the capitalist bloc and the defence of the Far East. The Sino-Soviet strategic partnership was a dilemma for Stalin. On the one hand, assisting and having a trusted socialist ally like China in East Asia would immensely tip the balance of power to the Soviet Union's favour and reinforce Soviet leadership in the communist world. On the other hand, Stalin feared that Mao would become
33200-465: The southeast, where trade was conducted in the 19th century between western powers and the Qing government . By contrast, projects aided by the Soviet Union were primarily located in the northeast, centre, and the western region of China, which optimized the spatial distribution of China's industries, promoting economies of the previously underdeveloped hinterland and facilitated Chinese industrialization and modernization in general. The Treaty influenced
33400-410: The speech and such view was echo by columnist Li Kwok-sing who claims that "China has never followed the theory of the ten relationship." During and immediately after the Great Leap Forward, Mao went further on the repudiation of the Soviet development model through thoroughly criticizing two Soviet books, Political Economy: A Textbook and Stalin's Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR . As for
33600-504: The speech did not differed significantly from the one in Khrushchev's speech made in the party congress in the same year and their 6th Five-year Plan as well. In Shen's view, China and the Soviet Union were both searching for the path for furthering socialist development. In part four, Mao said that the party "did make a mistake on the question of grain." In 1954, a decrease in production was accompanied by an increase in state purchase, making
33800-450: The speech was distributed to local level, "bearing in mind lessons drawn from the Soviet Union" was understood differently. In early 1957, it was reported that many local units began to lose enthusiasm in Soviet experts, did not learn from them, and even became rude to them. Soviet experts were not assigned works and leaders in some bureaus did not form a close relationship with them. Some bureaucrats even refused to work with them. In response,
34000-460: The speech was the ratio of investment between heavy industry on one hand and light industry and agriculture on the other. In June 1956, the ratio of heavy industry to light industry was reduced from 8:1 to 7:1 and a few months later the proposed investment in agriculture had also increased from 7% to 10%. Also, the State Council planned to decentralize the administration of economic organizations and
34200-401: The spirit - the Sino-Soviet friendship treaty. This may have been partially in response to what the Chinese viewed as the timid Soviet response to the West in the 1958 Lebanon crisis and 1958 Iraqi coup d'état . The Soviets opted to publicly support China at the end of August, but became concerned when the US replied with veiled threats of nuclear war in early September and mixed-messaging from
34400-431: The state purchase of grain were what exerted burden on the peasants. After 1949, the state purchase of grain had been on the rise and the increase was the most prominent after the implementation of the state monopoly in 1953. In 1956–1967, the figure dropped and it did not increase until the Great Leap Forward . Mao himself had directly intervened the policy on state purchase of grain in the early 1950s, requesting to lower
34600-414: The strong or bad points from other countries to pick up. He used the example of the setting of a Ministry of Culture and a Bureau of Cinematography, instead of a Ministry of Cinematography and a Bureau of Culture like the case of the Soviet Union, to illustrate the importance of making a decision that best fitted the situations of China. Regarding to the denouncement of the cult of personality of Stalin in
34800-453: The tenth point, Mao emphasized the importance of "learning the strengths of all peoples and all countries." Mao viewed the policy of learning from the other countries (implying the Soviet Union) had been right so far. Yet since that every nation had its weak points, China "mustn't copy everything indiscriminately and transplant mechanically" and "pick up their shortcomings and weak points." The Chinese Communists must be able to discern what were
35000-413: The treaty with Mao. On January 2, 1950, Stalin finally agreed to initiate the talk with Mao to address the treaty issue. Mao presented three proposals: the conclusion of a new treaty, a publication of official announcements from the two countries claiming that the two parties have reached an agreement on issues regarding the previous treaty, and finally, a signing of the declaration of relationships between
35200-491: The treaty would give the United States and Britain leverage to alter the points regarding the Kuril Islands or Southern Sakhalin , which were the Soviet Union's territorial gains made in Yalta. Regarding Mao's desire for a new treaty, Stalin addressed the possibility of formally retaining the existing treaty while changing it in practice. For instance, the Soviet Union still reserved the rights to station troops in Port Arthur, yet at
35400-632: The treaty's duration should remain for thirty years. The treaty, the agreements, and the notes were signed on February 14, 1950, in the Kremlin formally. Article 1. Promise of collective security that treats an attack on one as an attack on both to prevent the revival of Japanese imperialism. The two sides were obliged to extend military and other forms of assistance when faced with aggression and war. The two contracting parties undertook to uphold principles of cooperation conducive to international peace and security. Article 2. The signatories should conclude
35600-419: The trend of anti-personality cult was prevalent in the socialist camp after 1953, Shen argues that Mao only opposed the public use of Mao Zedong Thought, but not saw it as a problem itself. Hu Qiaomu explained that not mentioning Mao Zedong Thought was related to the Soviet Union who refused to accept the idea. And since China still relied on the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, so that was Mao's policy to downplay
35800-449: The two Socialist states would not meet again for the next 30 years. In June 1960, at the zenith of de-Stalinization, the USSR denounced the People's Republic of Albania as a politically backward country for retaining Stalinism as government and model of socialism. In turn, Bao Sansan said that the CCP's message to the cadres in China was: "When Khrushchev stopped Russian aid to Albania, Hoxha said to his people: 'Even if we have to eat
36000-403: The two countries signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance ( 中苏友好同盟互助条约 ) which promised the Soviet Union's commitment to help build socialism in the newly founded People's Republic of China. From 1950 to 1956, a total of 5,092 Soviet experts were sent to China for technical assistant and the total number of visits of the Soviet experts was over 18,000 throughout
36200-495: The two countries without the need of a new treaty. Mao certainly favoured the first proposal, which he argued would bring great benefits to both countries politically, particularly for confrontation with other imperialist powers. After the approval from the Soviet side, the two parties arranged Zhou Enlai 's arrival in Moscow . Prime Minister Zhou Enlai arrived in Moscow with the Chinese negotiation delegation on January 20, 1950. After
36400-401: The two weaknesses of China, one being the lack of confidence among the people due to its colonial and semi-colonial past and the imperialist encroachment, and another being the delay of revolution which came only in 1949, four decades after the bourgeois revolution in 1911 . In Mao Zedong's own works, "in the first eight years we copied foreign experiences, but since the ten major relationships
36600-421: The use of indirect planning and market mechanisms were proposed and experimented in late 1956. Yet the attempt was soon curtailed because of the difficulties involved and opposition from economic planners. Teiwes reminds that the Soviet Union themselves had also tried to decentralize in mid-1955 and it contributed to China's reaction. An instance of such influence was the use of Soviet machine tractor for spreading
36800-434: The view of economic planners and supported the state monopoly of the purchasing and marketing of grain. As the state monopoly was imposed, the state now had a better understanding of the amount of grain in the hands of peasants and in 1953, a total of 825 billion catties of grain was purchased, higher than the planned 708 billion. Emboldened by this increase, Chen Yun increased the amount even higher in 1954. The only concern for
37000-497: The world as the "third force" of the communist world. Romania's independence - achieved in the early 1960s through its freeing from its Soviet satellite status - was tolerated by Moscow because Romania was not bordering the Iron Curtain - being surrounded by socialist states - and because its ruling party was not going to abandon communism. North Korea under Kim Il Sung also remained neutral because of its strategic status after
37200-493: The years. The areas they provided assistance included government bureaus, military, large enterprises, and higher institutions. In the countryside, from late 1955 to early 1956, China's agricultural sector completed the Socialist High Tide, transforming from having only 14.2% (16.9 million out of 120 million) of peasant families collectivized to 91.2% of them joining the co-operatives and 61.9% joining collectives. Likewise in
37400-606: Was a bilateral treaty of alliance, collective security, aid and cooperation concluded between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on February 14, 1950. It superseded the previous Sino-Soviet treaty signed by the Kuomintang government . This treaty was signed against the background of the establishment of China's communist regime and the Cold War confrontation, resulting directly from Mao's foreign policy directive of " leaning to one side " (siding with
37600-481: Was also rejected. In June, China requested Soviet assistance to develop nuclear attack submarines. The following month, the Soviets proposed the construction of a joint strategic submarine fleet, but the proposal as delivered failed to mention the type of submarine. The proposal was strongly rejected by Mao under the belief that the Soviet wanted to control China's coast and submarines. Khrushchev secretly visited Beijing in early August in an unsuccessful attempt to salvage
37800-404: Was concerned. The result was a growing Chinese reluctance to cooperate with the Soviet Union. The deterioration of the relationship manifested throughout the year. In April, the Soviets proposed the construction of a joint radio transmitter. China rejected it after counter-proposing that the transmitter be Chinese owned and that Soviet usage be limited to wartime. A similar Soviet proposal in July
38000-455: Was different from the party constitution in the last congress which stated Mao Zedong Thought as one of the guiding principles, alongside Marxism and Leninism, for the Chinese revolution. Since Mao himself had more than once opposed the use of the term in internal communication, so its removal in the 8th party congress did not necessarily indicate that Mao's status had been challenged as argued by some historians like Roderick MacFarquhar . Though
38200-552: Was dishonestly realized with the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and the 1860 Convention of Peking . The Soviet government ignored the matter. In 1968, the Soviet Army had massed along the 4,380-kilometre (2,720 mi) border with the PRC, especially at the Xinjiang frontier, in north-west China , where the Soviets might readily induce the Turkic peoples into a separatist insurrection. In 1961,
38400-480: Was dissatisfied with it and opined that further revision was needed. It remained for circulation among cadres only and was not for publication. In December, the party central instructed cadres to study the speech and express their views on it. In summer 1975, Deng Xiaoping directed the editorial work of the fifth volume of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong and suggested the inclusion of the speech. A further revision of
38600-517: Was pinned as a revisionist. Popular sentiment within China regarded Khrushchev as a representative of the upper-class, and Chinese Marxist-Leninists viewed the leader as a blight on the communist project. While the two nations had significant ideological similarities, domestic instability drove a wedge between the nations as they began to adopt different visions of communism following the death of Stalin in 1953. Popular sentiment within China changed as Khrushchev's policies changed. Stalin had accepted that
38800-435: Was proposed in 1956, [the party] had found a path suitable for China." The speech was credited for setting the tone for the 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party to be held in the second half of 1956, the first national congress after the founding of the new country in 1949. During the drafting process for the political report for the congress, Mao's original idea was to set "anti-rightist conservative thought" as
39000-436: Was responsible for Mao's security and Shi Zhe , Mao's interpreter. The first official interaction between Mao and Stalin took place in the Kremlin on the night of the 16th. Mao first claimed that the most important concern for China was securing peace. China needed three to five years of peace to restore the economy to pre-war standards and stabilize the country. The resolution of China's major issues depended heavily on
39200-452: Was revised by Mao himself and soon published on People's Daily in June the same year, but the former was only circulated among the middle and top cadres and remained unpublished until after Mao's death. Contrary to his usual practice of editing his own drafts, Mao had left the speech untouched after 1956. In 1965, Liu Shiqi suggested to Mao the publication of the speech due to its importance but Mao
39400-445: Was seen as taking the capitalist road. There was also an institutional mismatch between the impressive capability of resources mobilization, massive industrial plant construction, and poor mechanisms of managing and coordinating production. The distinctive drawback inherent to the Stalinist model also manifested itself in China's planned economy. During the first five-year plan , the rapid industrialization disproportionately prioritized
39600-456: Was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War . This was primarily caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism , as influenced by their respective geopolitics during the Cold War of 1947–1991. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sino-Soviet debates about
39800-408: Was the lack or absence of functional air and naval force essential to any cross-strait military operation. Although Chiang Kai-shek had retreated to Taiwan by the time of the negotiation of the treaty, the KMT still maintained air and naval superiority over the PLA , which put the PLA in a disadvantageous position. A reflection of that was PLA's defeat in the Battle of Guningtou , where wooden boats of
40000-420: Was to have a direct talk with Stalin and sign a new Sino-Soviet treaty. Having gone through the prolonged Second Sino-Japanese War and the civil war from 1945 to 1949 , the newly established Communist regime inherited a devastated economy and volatile socio-political environment. The signing of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance materialized the cooperative relationship between
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