Brothers in Arms (137 page)

Read Brothers in Arms Online

Authors: Odd Arne Westad

Tags: #Political Science, #International Relations, #General, #test

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ticular, the campaign to ''let a hundred flowers bloom" as well as the publication of a work by Mao Zedong "On the Question of Correctly Resolving Contradictions among the People" to provoke a schism in relations between the Soviet Union and PRC, the leadership of the CCP CC and the government of the PRC emphasized the close unity of the socialist camp and the leading role of the CPSU among Communist and workers' parties. Mao Zedong stated this very definitively in his speech to Chinese students attending Moscow State University (November 1957), and he spoke about it at length with officials from Yugoslavia and also during meetings that PRC government delegations had with delegations from Poland and other countries of the socialist camp. In 1959 the CCP CC, having reexamined the proposal of the CPSU CC to clarify its formula about the leading role of the Soviet Union in the socialist camp, again affirmed that this formula must be preserved in the future.
The durability of Soviet-Chinese relations and the role of Soviet-Chinese friendship gained new strength as the international situation deteriorated in the Middle East and also in connection with the provocations by the USA around the Taiwan Straits in the summer of 1958. The most important political event that year in Soviet-Chinese relations, which had an enormously positive influence on the development of the whole international situation, was the July-August meeting in Beijing between Comrades N. S. Khrushchev and Mao Zedong. During an exchange of views they considered a number of matters pertaining to Soviet-Chinese relations and, in particular, questions of military cooperation. The speech by Comrade N. S. Khrushchev, including his statement that an attack on the PRC would be regarded as an attack on the Soviet Union itself, was fervently greeted with expressions of gratitude and approval in China. The government of the PRC displayed great satisfaction at our assurance about our readiness to launch a nuclear strike in retaliation for a nuclear strike against China. In turn, the Chinese government declared that the PRC will come to the assistance of the USSR in any part of the globe if an attack is carried out against it.
The letter from Comrade N. S. Khrushchev, and a variety of reports from the CPSU CC about the provision of assistance to the PRC to continue strengthening its defense capability, about a reduction in the number of Soviet specialists in the PRC and the elimination of the network of Soviet "advisor-consultants," about the CPSU CC's views of the Yugoslav Communist League's draft program, and about other matters had important political benefits.
The results of the CPSU's Twenty-first Congress provided a great boost to the practical activity of the CCP in overseeing socialist construction in the country. It is worth noting that after the publication of the report by Comrade N. S. Khrushchev at the CPSU' s Twenty-first Congress and during the proceedings of the Congress, the Chinese friends, while giving a generally positive evaluation of the achievements of socialist construction in the USSR, made almost no mention of the theoretical portions of the report by Corn-

 

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rade N. S. Khrushchev and said that those portions related only to the practice of socialist and Communist construction in the USSR.
In a similar vein, the provisions adopted at the Second Session of the CCP's Eighth Congress (May 1958) regarding a straggle against "blind faith" and regarding the need to foster sentiments of national pride among the people, as well as some preliminary success in implementing the "Great Leap Forward," caused a number of cadre workers in the PRC to take on airs. They began excessively emphasizing China's uniqueness and displaying a guarded attitude toward Soviet experience and the recommendations of Soviet specialists. Some began declaring that the Soviet Union had stayed too long at the socialist stage of development, while China was moving valiantly ahead toward communism. The Chinese press quite actively featured criticism of the socialist principles implemented in the USSR for the distribution of material goods in accordance with one's labor, for the compensation of labor on a job-by-job basis, and so forth. Some authors essentially argued that communes were incompatible with kolkhozes.
Later on, after studying materials from the Congress and after numerous mistakes arose during the establishment of the peasant communes and during the implementation of the "Great Leap Forward," the CCP began to display a more proper understanding of matters considered by the Twenty-first Congress, such as the question of the significance of creating a material-technical base and increasing the productivity of labor for the construction of socialism, the question of the role of the principle of material incentives and labor distribution under socialism, and other questions. The CPSU's position in offering a principled explanation of a number of Marxist-Leninist precepts and laws of the building of socialism and communism, which were ignored in China during the implementation of the "Great Leap Forward" and the establishment of communes (see the report and speech by Comrade N. S. Khrushchev at the Twenty-first Congress and the speeches that followed), helped the Chinese comrades to evaluate the situation correctly and to begin rectifying the mistakes and shortcomings that had arisen. The statement by Comrade N. S. Khrushchev about the permanent foundations of Soviet-Chinese friendship swept the rug out from under imperialist and Yugoslav revisionist propaganda, which was intended to sow mistrust between our countries and provoke a deterioration of Soviet-Chinese relations. . . .
An analysis of Soviet-Chinese relations over the past decade confirms that relations of fraternal amity and fruitful cooperation have been established on a lasting basis and are growing wider and stronger with every passing year. These relations are a decisive factor in the further growth of the might and cohesion of the world socialist camp and in the consolidation of world peace and the security of nations.
Source: Report to CC CPSU, "Vnutripoliticheskoe, ekonomicheskoe i mezhdunarodnoe polozhenie KNR," Tsentr Khraneniia Sovremennoi Dokumentatsii (TsKhSD), f. 5, op. 30, d. 307, 49-79. Obtained and translated by Mark Kramer.

 

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XIII. Record of Conversation, Soviet Beijing Ambassador Stepan Chervonenko and Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi, August 4, 1960
This document is an excerpt of the record of the first meeting between a Chinese leader and the Soviet ambassador to Beijing after Moscow's decision to withdraw its advisers from China in July 1960. Chen Yi had returned to Beijing from the annual CCP leadership summer meetings in Beidahe to meet with the ambassador. Before leaving Beidahe, Chen had consulted both with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, but had been given no specific instructions on what to tell Chervonenko.
I [Chervonenko] visited Chen Yi in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC on my own initiative and made the following verbal statement:
"It has became known to the embassy that the Chinese organizations who employ Soviet specialists have been giving talks to them. During these talks the notes are read which the governments of the USSR and the PRC have exchanged confidentially on the issue of the recall of Soviet specialists from the PRC, while the specialists are not informed beforehand about the aims of their invitation to such talks. Some of the specialists were told by responsible Chinese officials (up to deputy minister level) that the organizing of the readings had been ordered by the government of the PRC.
"The embassy considers these actions of the Chinese side not only as illegitimate, but also as aimed at unprovoked substitution of the functions of the Soviet organizations concerning their specialists working abroad. Moreover, there is no necessity in these actions because all Soviet specialists working in the PRC have been informed about the decision of the Soviet government concerning their recall from the PRC.
"The embassy cannot help noting the unusual, willful nature of the actions of the Chinese organizations in relation to the Soviet specialists and has to establish that their drawing in the above-mentioned talks has the goal of spreading doubts about the recall of the specialists and [in] this way creating contradictions between the Soviet people working in the PRC and the government of the Soviet Union.
"In connection with these tactless, clearly unfriendly actions toward the Soviet government and the Soviet people working in the PRC, the embassy considers it its duty to call the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China to the inadmissibility of such actions in the relations between our countries and expects that the corresponding Chinese organizations will be given orders to stop and prevent in future such actions toward the Soviet people."
Having heard that statement, Chen Yi said that he would like to give an answer to it. He said that the very event the recall of the Soviet specialists had been created by the Soviet side and had a very big political importance. The decision to recall all Soviet spe-

 

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cialists which number approximately 1,400 to 1,500 persons has been made without consultations with the Chinese side, unilaterally. The Chinese side was informed about the recall on July 16, and without waiting for our (Chinese) answer their departure has started. At the present moment big groups of the specialists have already left China. The Soviet specialists work in sixteen towns and in 500 to 600 Chinese organizations. And despite the fact that "machinery works there," they all are being recalled. Chen Yi said that the Soviet Union did not pay attention any more to China being a fraternal country, [it] ignored obligations taken according to the Treaty and the agreements. The recall of the specialists "this is a big event, which will shake the whole China."
He further stated that they had not reproached the embassy in the past, were not reproaching it at the moment, and would not reproach for the organizing of the departure of the specialists, because it had the right to implement the decision of its government. We (the Chinese) will not guess what kind of work the embassy has conducted with the specialists. You have your own rights here and we should not call your attention to anything. But this issue has at least an unusual nature in the relations between our countries, because this is a unilateral action of the Soviet Union.
Chen Yi said that the fact of the recall of the Soviet specialists could not be hidden. By September 1 all specialists will have been sent from China. The whole world will know and this will be also "a big event, which will shake the whole world." Our two countries are the great states, which always cooperated with each other. He stressed that he was saying this not on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and not as a representative of the Communist Party of China. "I am a little person and will not assess the actions of the Soviet government. I would ask you to understand us correctly. The sudden and decisive steps of the Soviet government cause big economic losses for our enterprises. A split in a friendship this is serious." Chen Yi again stressed that everything said was his own opinion and declared that the official position of the Chinese side would be presented soon.
Chen Yi stated that it was impossible even to think that our countries could be unfriendly, could live without friendship. Of course we [the Chinese] are in a very difficult situation because of the recall of the specialists. But we will try to restore this friendship. "Brothers still remain brothers." You have had no capitalists, landowners, exploiting classes for a long time, you have only the working class, peasantry and the revolutionary intelligentsia. . . .
Chen Yi said, laughing: "You see, you have wanted to see Chen Yi and he has received you, although he knew that the discussion would concern the specialists, and could have charged his deputy with that problem." Having stressed that he was speaking not on behalf of the party and the government, but considered this an exchange of views between

 

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