The People's Republic of China and the Warsaw Pact Organization, 1955-63

Abstract

Communist China's relationship with the Warsaw Pact Organization (WPO) was dependent on its alliance with the Soviet Union. As the Sino-Soviet pact deteriorated over the late 1950s and early 1960s, Beijing's loose institutional links to the WPO collapsed. In 1955, China committed itself to the aims of the WPO without becoming a full member. Against the background of Mao's domestic radicalization, military and political cooperation between the pact system and the Chinese observer faltered from 1957 to 1961. In an afterlude, the Soviet Union–unsuccessfully–tried to reorient the WPO from Europe to Asia in 1963. Afterwards, China and the WPO did not maintain any formal or informal links.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for comments from Vojtech Mastny, the participants of the Warsaw Pact/NATO conference at Kent State University in April 2004, O. Arne Westad, and one anonymous reviewer.

Notes

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 [2] Chen, China's Road.

 [3] Chen and Kuisong, “Chinese Politics”, 257.

 [4] Goncharenko, “Sino-Soviet Military Cooperation”, 145–6.

 [5] Pei, Zhonghua, vol. 1, 35.

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 [7] Domes, Peng Te-huai, 67.

 [8] Liu, Chushi, 8–13.

 [9] Shen, Khrushchev, no page numbers.

[10] Wang, Peng Dehuai nianpu, 665–6; Liu, Chushi, 71.

[11] See extensive coverage in chapters 1 and 2 of Lüthi, Sino-Soviet Split.

[12] See extensive coverage in chapter 3 of Lüthi, Sino-Soviet Split.

[13] MacFarquhar, Origins, vol. 2, 63–6, 75–6, 95.

[14] Wang, Peng, 680–81; Pei, Zhonghua, vol. 2, 224–5 (third quote).

[15] Wang, Peng, 681–91, 697.

[16] Nash, Other Missiles, 45–75.

[17] “Speech of the Head of the Soviet Delegation, N. S. Khrushchev, Chairman of the Minister Council of the USSR, on the Conference of the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact on 24 May 1958”, PAAA-MfAA , Konferenzen und Verhandlungen mit DDR-Beteiligung, Microfiche A 14702, 1349.

[18] Catudal, Soviet Nuclear Strategy, 45; Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers, 266–8.

[19] Mao, On Diplomacy, 480, footnote 172; Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers: The last testament, 258 (quote).

[20] Contemporary China Series, Dangdai, 112; Wang, Peng, 681.

[21] Wu, Shinian, 158.

[22] Mao, “Talk with Yudin, Ambassador of the Soviet Union to China”, 22 July 1958, in Mao, On Diplomacy, 254.

[23] “First Conversation of N. S. Khrushchev with Mao Zedong, 31 July 1958”, in Wolff, “One Finger's Worth”, 52.

[24] “First Conversation of N. S. Khrushchev with Mao Zedong, 31 July 1958”, in Wolff, “One Finger's Worth”, 55.

[25] Wang, Peng, 733, 734.

[26] Liu, Chushi, 110–11.

[27] Mao, “The Western World Will Inevitably Split Up”, 25 November 1958, in Mao, On Diplomacy, 280; Mao, “Remarks and Revisions on a Text of a Speech by Zhang Wentian on the International Situation”, 5 July 1959, JYMW, vol. 8, 339–40 (first quote); Mao, “Remarks on a Preliminary Summary of the Chargé d'Affaires in England on the Development of Contradictions between England, America, France, West Germany, etc”, 5 January and 12 February, 1959, JYMW, vol. 8, 36–7 (second quote).

[28] MacFarquhar, Origins, vol. 2, 226; Brezhnev, Kitai , 52.

[29] Li, Waijiao, 178–83; Wu, Shinian, 221–22; “Record of Conversation of Comrade Khrushchev N.S. with CC CCP Chairman Mao Zedong, Deputy Chairman CC CCP Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Lin Biao, Politburo Members Peng Zhen and Chen Yi, and Secretariat Member Wang Jiaxiang, 2 October 1959”, in Wolff, “One Finger's Worth”, 65–8.

[30] Wu, Shinian, 230, 236–9; Si, “Zhonggong duidai Duleise”, 59 (first quote); Bo, Ruogan, vol. 2, 1142 (other quotes).

[31] Wu, Shinian, 233–4.

[32] Khrushchev made this appeal during the Hungarian Party Congress on 1 December 1959, see: New York Times (NYT), 2 December 1959, 4.

[33] “Record of conversation with the chairman of the People's Republic of China comrade Liu Shaoqi”, 10 December 1959, AVP RF , fond 0100, opis 53, delo 8, papka 454, 5.

[34] Wu, Shinian, 250–52.

[35] “Speech of Comrade Kang Sheng on the Meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the Members of the Warsaw Pact”, [4 February 1960], SAPMO-BArch , DY 30/3386, 87–99.

[36] Dodic, Historischer Rückblick, 15–21. See extensive coverage in chapters 5 and 6 of Lüthi, The Sino-Soviet Split.

[37] “Secret Decision on Albania”, 29 March 1961, at: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/documents/collection_3/PCC_meetings/coll_3_PCC_1961.htm, accessed 25 February 2004.

[38] Biberaj, Albania, 38.

[39] For Mao's focus on this issue during the summer of 1961, see: Wu, Shinian, 173, 457.

[40] Bonwetsch and Kuhfuss, “Chruschtschow und der Mauerbau”.

[41] Pei, Zhonghua, vol. 2, 244–5.

[42] “Summary Report of the CPSU CC”, 17 October 1961, RGANI , fond 1, opis 4, delo 89, 26–222 and fond 1, opis 4, delo 90, 1–99; Taubman, Khrushchev, 514–15 (quote).

[43] Delyusin, “Nekotorie”, 19–20.

[44] Wu, Shinian, 458, 471–9; Liu, Chushi, 137, 142–5.

[45] PRC Foreign Ministry Diplomatic History Research Office, Zhou Enlai waijiao, 325–6.

[46] “Letter from Central Committees of the Communist Parties of Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia to Central Committee of the Communist Parties of China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Mongolia”, 31 October 1961, in: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/collections/coll_11.htm#RelatedDocuments, accessed 25 February 2004; “Letter by Tsedenbal to the Polish and other CCs concerning the level of representation of Asian observer countries at Warsaw Pact meetings”, 31 October 1961, at: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/news/UpcomingEvents/2004_ulaanbaatar_docs.htm, accessed 25 February 2004.

[47] Pei, Zhonghua, vol. 2, 356 (quote); Wu, Shinian, 471–5.

[48] Mastny and Byrne, Cardboard Castle, 22–8.

[49] MacFarquhar, Origins, vol. 3, 273–83.

[50] MacFarquhar, Origins, vol. 3, 334. See extensive coverage in chapter 7 of Lüthi, The Sino-Soviet Split.

[51] See extensive coverage in chapter 8 of Lüthi, The Sino-Soviet Split.

[52] Quoted in: Li, Lengnuan suiyue, 320.

[53] Taubman, Khrushchev, 582–4; Cousins, The Improbable Triumvirate, 45, 46.

[54] Wu, Shinian, 504; Prozumenshikov, “The Sino-Indian Conflict”, 254–5.

[55] Wu, Shinian, 556–7.

[56] “The Letter of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. to the Central Committee of the C.P.C., March 1963”, Berton, Chinese–Russian Dialogue, vol. 1, no page numbers.

[57] “Message from the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Soviet Ambassador to the United States (Dobrynin)”, 1 April 1963, FRUS 1961–63, VI, 250–62.

[58] “Commencement Address at American University in Washington, 10 June 1963”, Kennedy, Public Papers of the President, 1963, 459–64; Seaborg, Kennedy , 212–13; quoted in: Taubman, Khrushchev, 602; Pravda, 12 June 1963, 3.

[59] Peking Review [Beijing Review], 30 (26 July 1963), 10–26.

[60] The transcript of the speech is in: “Seventh Session”, 21 June 1963, RGANI, fond 2, opis 1, delo 658, 87, 87a.

[61] NYT, 3 July 1963, 4.

[62] “Editorial Note”, FRUS 1961–63, VII, 762–4; “Editorial Note”, FRUS 1961–63, V, 712–13; Abramson, Spanning the Century, 596; NYT, 3 July 1962, 1, 4, 26; 4 July 1963, 3.

[63] “N. Khrushchev to dear comrade Walter Ulbricht”, 10 July 1963, SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/3387, 47–9.

[64] “N. Khrushchev to dear comrade Walter Ulbricht”, 15 July 1963, SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/3387, 52–3.

[65] “Protocol no. 21/63”, 4 July 1963, SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/J IV 2/2/885, 1; “Notes on a talk of the first secretaries of the CCs of the communist and workers parties on a talk with comr. N. S. Khrushchev on 6/30/1963”, SÚA , Archiv ÚV KSČ, Fond 07/16, Antonín Novotný–Zahraničí, karton 140, Návštěva s. Novotného u prǐležitosti 70. natozenin W. Ulbrichta v Berlíné–29.6.–1.7.1963, 1–7.

[66] Stolper, China, 18–19, 143–4.

[67] “Annual Report by the embassy of the GDR in the MPR”, 1/2/1963, SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV A 2/20/308, no continuous page numbers in file.

[68] English translation of “Stenographic Record of the Meeting of the Politburo of the Romanian Workers' Party Central Committee”, 18 July 1963, at: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/collections/coll_11.htm#RelatedDocuments, accessed 25 February 2004.

[69] English translation of “Memorandum by the Polish Foreign Minister (Rapacki)”, 20 July 1963, t: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/collections/coll_11.htm#RelatedDocuments, accessed on 25 February 2004.

[70] Mastny and Byrne, Cardboard Castle?, 22–8.

[71] Quoted in: Opris, “Attempts”, 16 (AMAE, fund 9 Warsaw 3, file year 1963, f. 51).

[72] Quoted in ibid., f. 27–28.

[73] Quoted from: Rijnoveanu, “Romanian Perspective”, 9 (Alexandru Osca, Vasile Popa, Romania, o fereastra deschisa in Cortina de Fier. Focsani: Vantrop Publishing House, 1997, 150–52).

[74] Contemporary China Series, Dangdai Zhongguo, 120; Li, Lengnuan, 320–22; Wu, Shinian, 628–30; Lewis and Xue, China Builds the Bomb, 192–3. For the list of signatory nations, see: U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Arms Control, 18–23. The author identified these states through comparison of a list of the signatory states and a list of the UN member states (ordered according to admission), see: Stearns, Encyclopedia, 1078–9.

[75] For good coverage of the talks, see: Wu, Shinian, 601–27.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lorenz M. Lüthi

Born in Switzerland, Lorenz M. Lüthi studied history, political science, international law, Chinese and Russian at the University of Zurich (MA 1995) and at Yale (2003). He is currently an Assistant Professor in History of International Relations at McGill University. In early 2008, his first book – The Sino-Soviet Split – will be published. His new book project deals with the rise of the post-Cold War world in East Asia, the Middle East, and Europe in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.