China-Soviet 6: From Being in War to Being Friends Again; Why did China-Soviet Relations Quickly Normalize in 1989?
May 2024
In the late 1950s, as differences grew over issues of national interest, such as the establishment of a long-wave radio station and a joint fleet within the Chinese land and sea terrritory, relations between China and the Soviet Union began to drift apart. The so-called establishment of a joint fleet meant opening the territorial waters and territories of the two countries to each other’s navies. However, the Chinese navy was still very weak, and it was impossible for China to sail into the Soviet territorial waters even if the Soviet Union opens its territorial waters. Besides, what would be the point and value of China’s naval warships sailing into the territorial waters of other countries?
Chairman Mao’s Most Important Concern
For Chairman Mao and other older generation leaders, the Chinese nation and tens of thousands of revolutionary martyrs sacrificed their lives and shed their blood in bloody battles with Japanese imperialism, the Kuomintang reactionaries, American imperialism and others for decades to gain the country’s sovereignty, independence and national freedom, which was absolutely impossible to make concessions. The new People’s Republic of China was neither the Qing government of 19th century that lost its sovereignty and humiliated the country, nor was it the Nationalist Chinese government that fawned on foreign powers and sold out the country! In retaliation, to this conflict Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev stopped providing China with nuclear weapons technology.
In July 1960, Khrushchev withdrew all Soviet experts from China, destroyed some technical drawings, and tore up almost all economic contracts for cooperation with China.
At this time, New China was experiencing unprecedentedly severe natural disasters, so the Soviet Union’s behavior was essentially equivalent to adding insult to injury, hoping to make China suffer. But the Chinese people, led by Mao Zedong, withstood the increasing pressure from the Soviet Union and, through self-reliance and hard work, exploded the first atomic bomb on October 16, 1964. Many people believe that this atomic bomb was China’s “prestige bomb.” Coincidentally, just two days ago, on October 14, Khrushchev was dismissed from his posts as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers and stepped down in disgrace. In recognition of Khrushchev’s “contribution” to the development of nuclear weapons in New China, Chairman Mao said wittily: “Khrushchev should be awarded a one-ton medal.”
Against the backdrop of the increasingly tense global Cold War with the United States, the Soviet authorities, led by Khrushchev and his successor Brezhnev, began to frequently take action against foreign countries, provoking armed conflicts everywhere and even interfering in the internal affairs of fraternal countries by force. This had also aroused Chairman Mao’s high vigilance. In January 1968, Czechoslovakia began to implement reforms to the country’s political and economic system, announcing that it would establish a socialist model that suited its actual conditions. This move was known in history as the “Prague Spring.” Brezhnev was very annoyed by the Czech Republic’s eccentricity. On the evening of August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries dispatched troops to openly invade Czechoslovakia. The Soviet army quickly occupied Prague, and the “Prague Spring” died prematurely. The Soviet Union’s tough interference in Czechoslovakia caused an international uproar. Not only did the Chinese government publicly condemn it, but Romania, also a socialist country, also expressed strong opposition. The events in Europe only proved once again that the Soviet army was not just a decoration, but a real tiger that could bite.
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