Supplied cash and arms but losing anyway: Chinese support of the Lumumbist insurgencies in the Congo Crisis (1959–65)

ABSTRACT

Using Foreign Ministry Archives and memoirs from China, this article explains the nature and the development of Chinese policy in the Congo Crisis, in particular, Beijing’s support of two Lumumbist movements in Kwilu and eastern Congo in 1963–5. While initially loyal to the Soviet Union, China sought to position itself as the leader of the newly independent ‘Third World’, sympathetic to – and able to provide experience, training and weaponry for – rural guerrilla struggles. However, China’s military assistance to opposition movements in Congo had to make sure not to provoke direct conflict with the United States.

KEYWORDS:

• Congo
• China
• Africa
• Mao
• insurgency

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank the editor, two anonymous reviewers, Miles Larmer, Sergey Radchenko and Lazlo Passemiers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The author also wishes to thank Charles Kraus at the Wilson Center for his assistance during the research. This paper was presented at the African Studies Association 64th Virtual Annual Conference in 2021.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

¹ Zong Daoyi, ‘坦率的毛泽东’ [‘Honest Mao Zedong’], Over the Party History, no. 12 (1994): 12.

² ‘The Second Independence’, translated from ‘La Deuxième Indépendence’ in French, was ‘a revolutionary attempt to correct some of the abusees and injustices by which large segments of the population of the region felt oppressed four years after official Independence’ of 1960. See Renée C. Fox, Willy de Craemer and Jean-Marie Ribeaucourt, ‘“The Second Independence”: A Case Study of the Kwilu Rebellion in the Congo’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 8, no. 1 (1965): 97.

³ Arunabh Ghosh, ‘Urgent Update on Foreign Ministry Archives, Beijing’, Dissertation Reviews, August 6, 2013 http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/5411 (accessed 14 January 2021); Maura Cunningham, ‘Denying Historians: China’s Archives Increasingly Off-bounds’, The Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2014 https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/08/19/denying-historians-chinas-archives-increasingly-off-bounds/ (accessed 14 January 2021).

⁴ Kazushi Minami, ‘China’s Foreign Ministry Archive: Open or Closed?’, Wilson Center, October 2, 2017 https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/chinas-foreign-ministry-archive-open-or-closed (accessed 14 January 2021).

⁵ Wang Yanqing, ‘冷战在刚果:美国对刚果危机决策研究(1960–1963)’ [Cold War in the Congo: a study of American policy-making towards the Congo Crisis (1960–1963)] (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2017); Wang Yanqing, ‘美国与刚果危机(1960–1963)’ [‘The American government and Congo Crisis (1960–1963)’] (PhD diss., East China Normal University, 2009).

⁶ Wang Shu, 五洲风云纪 – – 见证历史:共和国大使讲述 [The turbulent chronicles across five continents: witness to history: a PRC diplomat’s own account] (Shanghai: Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House, 2007).

⁷ Bruce D. Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–1970: The Foreign Policy of the People’s Republic of China (Berkeley: University of California, 1971), 55.

⁸ Sergeĭ Vasilʹevich Mazov, A Distant Front in the Cold War: The USSR in West Africa and the Congo, 1956–1964 (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2010); Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); Frank R. Villafana, Cold War in the Congo: The Confrontation of Cuban Military Forces, 1960–1967 (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2012).

⁹ Lise Namikas, Battleground Africa: Cold War in the Congo, 1960–1965 (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2015), 49.

¹⁰ Gregg A. Brazinsky, Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 260.

¹¹ Alexander C. Cook, ‘Chinese Uhuru: Maoism and the Congo Crisis’, Positions: Asia Critique 27, no. 4 (2019): 572.

¹² Catherine Hoskyns, ‘Sources for a Study of the Congo since Independence’, The Journal of Modern African Studies 1, no. 3 (1963): 373.

¹³ J. Gérard-Libois and B. Verhaegen, Congo 1959 (Brussels: Centre de Recherche et d’Information Socio-Politiques, 1960); Congo 1960 (Brussels: CRISP, 1961); Congo 1961 (Brussels: CRISP, 1962); Congo 1962 (Brussels: CRISP, 1963); Congo 1963 (Brussels: CRISP, 1964); Congo 1964 (Brussels: CRISP, 1965); Congo 1965 (Brussels: CRISP, 1966).

¹⁴ J. Gérard-Libois and B. Verhaegen, Congo 1964: Political Documents of a Developing Nation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015), 445–6.

¹⁵ J. Gérard-Libois and B. Verhaegen, Congo 1965: Political Documents of a Developing Nation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015), 38–9.

¹⁶ Fox, Craemer and Ribeaucourt, ‘The Second Independence’, 97.

¹⁷ Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–1970; Alaba Ogunsanwo, China’s Policy in Africa, 1958–71 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1974); Philip Snow, The Star Raft: China’s Encounter with Africa (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988).

¹⁸ Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–1970, 55.

¹⁹ Ibid.

²⁰ Alaba Ogunsanwo, China’s Policy in Africa, 1958–71 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1974), 102–4.

²¹ J. Chester Cheng, The Politics of the Chinese Red Army: A Translation of the Bulletin of Activities of the People’s Liberation Army (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966), 480–5.

²² Philip Snow, The Star Raft: China’s Encounter with Africa (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988), 98.

²³ Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

²⁴ Mazov, A Distant Front in the Cold War.

²⁵ Elizabeth Schmidt, Foreign Intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 8; Alessandro Iandolo, ‘Imbalance of Power: The Soviet Union and the Congo Crisis, 1960–1961’, Journal of Cold War Studies 16, no. 2 (2014): 32–55.

²⁶ Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions; Villafaņa, Cold War in the Congo.

²⁷ Che Guevara, The African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo (New York: Grove Press, 2001).

²⁸ Brazinsky, Winning the Third World, 266.

²⁹ Ibid., 266.

³⁰ Jeffrey H. Michaels, ‘Breaking the Rules: The CIA and Counterinsurgency in the Congo 1964–1965’, International Journal of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence 25, no. 1 (2012): 130–59.

³¹ Cook, ‘Chinese Uhuru’, 572.

³² Mao Zedong, ‘Talks with Anna Louis Strong’, in Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 4 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1967), 1191–2. For more detailed studies of Mao’s ‘intermediate zone’ theory, see Niu Jun, 中华人民共和国对外关系史概论 [Introduction to history of foreign relations of the People’s Republic of China (1949–2000)], (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2010), 176–7; Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War: The Making of the Sino-American Confrontation (New York: Columbia University Press), 18–21.

³³ Ogunsanwo, China’s Policy in Africa, 1958–71, 4.

³⁴ Ai Zhouchang and Mu Tao, 中非关系史 [History of Sino-African relations], (Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 1996), 218.

³⁵ John K. Cooley, East Wind over Africa: Red China’s African Offensive (New York: Walker and Company, 1965), 11.

³⁶ Richard Gott, John Major and Geoffrey Warner, eds., Documents on International Affairs 1960 (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), 349.

³⁷ Wang, An Adventure to Five Continents, 209.

³⁸ Fritz Schatten, Communism in Africa (New York: Praeger, 1966), 210.

³⁹ Namikas, Battleground Congo, 58. ‘亚非司对西亚非洲形势的估计和工作的意见’ [‘Department of Asian and African Affairs comments on the situations in West Asia and North Africa’], Developments of Foreign Affairs, no. 91, Chinese Foreign Ministry, January 28, 1959 quoted in Jiang Huajie, ‘冷战时期中国对非洲国家的援助研究 (1960–1978)’ [‘A study on Chinese aid to African countries in Cold War era, 1960–1978’] (PhD diss., East China Normal University, 2014), 26.

⁴⁰ ‘毛主席接见非洲国家代表’ [‘Chairman Mao receives African national delegates’], Developments of Foreign Affairs, no. 116, Chinese Foreign Ministry, April 4, 1959 quoted in Jiang, ‘A Study on Chinese Aid to African Countries in Cold War Era, 1960–1978’, 28.

⁴¹ Namikas, Battleground Congo, 48–9; Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–1970, 179.

⁴² ‘关于组织黑非洲人士来华学习革命经验的报告’ [‘Report on organising delegates from Black Africa to visit China to study revolutionary experience’], August 17, 1960, 108–00223-06 (1), 32–5, China’s Foreign Ministry Archives (hereafter CFMA).

⁴³ Wang, An Adventure to Five Continents, 240–2. Larkin noted that about 30 Congolese politicians visited China in the spring of 1960, see: Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–1970, 179, 181.

⁴⁴ Pierre Houart, La Penetration Communiste au Congo (Brussels: Centre de Documentation Internationale, 1960), quoted in Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–1970, 181.

⁴⁵ Wang, An Adventure to Five Continents, 245.

⁴⁶ Crawford Young, Politics in Congo: Decolonisation and Independence (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2015), 335–6.

⁴⁷ Wang, An Adventure to Five Continents, 245.

⁴⁸ Namikas, Battleground Africa, 145.

⁴⁹ Translated from the original Chinese ‘左派人士’, ‘leftist’ in this context refers to those foreigner individuals who support or are sympathetic to Communist China. ‘1961 年刚果形势和我们的对策’ [‘Report on the Congolese situation and our policy in 1961’], April 20, 1961, 108–01218-01, 11–2, CFMA.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–1970, 55.

⁵² Wang, An Adventure to Five Continents, 254.

⁵³ ‘苏联在刚果问题上的态度’ [‘Soviet attitudes on the issue of Congo’], September 20, 1961, 109–03033-01, 2–7, CFMA. By 1961, only half of the Soviet financial aid (US$250,000) was able to reach Gizenga. See: Sergei Mazov, ‘Soviet Aid to the Gizenga Government in the Former Belgian Congo (1960–61) as Reflected in Russian Archives’, Cold War History 7, no. 3 (2007): 432.

⁵⁴ ‘陈毅副总理会见苏联驻华大使契尔沃年科谈话记录’ [‘Minutes of meeting between Vice Premier Chen Yi and the Soviet Ambassador in China Stepan Chervonenko’], January 22, 1962, 108–01249-03, 6–7, CFMA.

⁵⁵ Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–1970, 55.

⁵⁶ The Sino-Soviet split had started in the late 1950s, but there was a brief period of relaxation in early 1961, see Lorenz M. Lüthi, The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), 197–8.

⁵⁷ Jeremy Scott Friedman, Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015), 7. For a more detailed analysis of the Sino-Soviet polemics between 1962–3, see Sergey Radchenko, Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2009), especially Chapter 1.

⁵⁸ Niu Jun, ‘冷战时代的中国战略决策’ [China’s strategy making in the Cold War era] (Beijing: World Knowledge Press, 2018), 346–7.

⁵⁹ Ogunsanwo, China’s Policy in Africa, 1958–71, 126.

⁶⁰ Ahmed Ben Bella (December 25, 1916–April 11, 2012) was an Algerian politician, socialist soldier and revolutionary who served as the first president of Algeria from 1963 to 1965.

⁶¹ Li Qianyu, ‘试论中国对第二次亚非会议政策的演变’ [‘China’s policy towards the second Afro-Asian conference’], International Politics Quarterly 4 (2010): 115–33.

⁶² Mark Atwood Lawrence, ‘The Rise and Fall of Nonalignment’, in The Cold War in the Third World, ed. Robert J. McMahon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 145.

⁶³ Namikas, Battleground Congo, 182.

⁶⁴ Ogunsanwo, China’s Policy in Africa, 1958–71, 174; Georges Nzongla-Ntalaja, Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History (New York: Zed Books, 2002), 128–9.

⁶⁵ Brazinsky wrote that he stayed as long as 15 months, but some said only two months; for example, see Young, Politics in Congo, 583.

⁶⁶ Fox, Craemer and Ribeaucourt, ‘The Second Independence’, 78–109; Cook, ‘Chinese Uhuru’, 587.

⁶⁷ ‘刚果非洲团结党等3人来华学习事’ [‘The issue of three PSA members to study in China’], March 26, 1964–April 19, 1964, 108–00503-01, 5–6, CFMA.

⁶⁸ ‘毛泽东主席接见刚果(布)特使安托万和刚果(利)非洲团结党政治局委员米都迪迪的谈话记录’[‘Mao Zedong receives Congo-Brazzaville special envoy and Congo-Leopoldville Parti Solidaire Africain’], April 16, 1964, 108–01341-01, 1, 4–8, 10–11, CFMA.

⁶⁹ Namikas, Battleground Congo, 182.

⁷⁰ Gaston Soumialot was misspelled by some as ‘Soumaliot’; see Cook, ‘Chinese Uhuru’, 590.

⁷¹ Shen Zhihua, ed., 冷战国际史二十四讲 [Cold War international history], (Beijing, World Knowledge Press, 2018), 274–5.

⁷² Young, Politics in Congo, 600.

⁷³ Mazov, ‘Soviet Aid to the Gizenga Government in the Former Belgian Congo (1960–61) as Reflected in Russian Archives’, 430.

⁷⁴ African Mail, January 10, 1964 quoted in Ogunsanwo, China’s Policy in Africa, 1958–71, 175, footnote 2.

⁷⁵ Fox, de Craemer and Ribeaucourt, ‘The Second Independence’, 97.

⁷⁶ Jodie Yuzhou Sun, ‘Historicizing African Socialisms: Kenyan African Socialism, Zambian Humanism, and Communist China’s Entanglements’, International Journal of African Historical Studies 52, no. 3 (2019): 349–74.

⁷⁷ For the clash between the ‘anti-imperialist’ and the ‘anticapitalist’ revolutionary programmes, see Friedman, Shadow Cold War, 1–24.

⁷⁸ Villafana, Cold War in the Congo, 143.

⁷⁹ Guevara, The African Dream, p. xxii.

⁸⁰ ‘中国驻坦桑尼亚使馆告刚果(利)东线爱国武装处境及看法’ [‘The present situation of patriotic forces on the Eastern Front of the Congo and our opinion’], December 7, 1965, 108–00612-01, CFMA.

⁸¹ ‘Mao Zedong Receives Congo-Brazzaville Special Envoy and Congo-Leopoldville Parti Solidaire Africain’, CFMA, 1.

⁸² Ibid.

⁸³ Ibid., 11.

⁸⁴ Brazinsky, Winning the Third World, 261.

⁸⁵ ‘关于与非洲民族主义者接触中应注意到的问题’ [‘Things to notice when dealing with African nationalists’], June 30−July 9, 1964, 108–00493-02, CMFA.

⁸⁶ Niu, China’s Strategy Making in the Cold War Era, 302.

⁸⁷ [‘The Issue to Note When Getting in Touch with African Nationalists’], June 30−July 9, 1964, CFMA.

⁸⁸ ‘外交部关于刚果(利)局势的声明’ [‘Foreign Ministry’ statement on the situation of Congo-Leopoldville’], August 26– September 1, 1964, 108–01347-01, CFMA.

⁸⁹ Ibid., 3.

⁹⁰ ‘Chinese Communist Involvement in Congolese Insurrections’, August 11, 1964, box 81, LBJL, NSF, quoted in Brazinsky, Winning the Third World, 264.

⁹¹ Jodie Yuzhou Sun, ‘“Now the Cry was Communism”: the Cold War and Kenya’s Relations with China, 1964–70’, Cold War History 20, no. 1 (2020): 39–58.

⁹² William Attwood, The Reds and the Blacks: A Personal Adventure (London: Hutchinson, 1967).

⁹³ ‘关于刚果(金)全国解放委员会访华接待计划’ [‘Reception plan for the CNL delegation’], October 1, 1964, 108–00509-02, 2, CFMA. Brazinsky mistook this document as 106–00509-02 and failed to identify Yumbu’s original name; see footnotes 133–4 in Brazinsky, Winning the Third World, 391.

⁹⁴ ‘Prise de position du groupe Bocheley-Yumbu’, September 9, Xinhua News Agency, quoted in Gérard-Libois and Verhaegen, Congo 1964, 473–4.

⁹⁵ Courrier d’Afrique, September 17, 1964, quoted in Young, Politics in Congo, 597.

⁹⁶ ‘A Plan to Receive a Delegation from the CNL’, CFMA, 2.

⁹⁷ ‘刚果(金)全国解放委员会第一总书记记博歇利和对外关系总书记尤姆访华接待简报’ [‘Reception briefing on Bocheley and Yumbu’], October 6–31, 1964, 108–00509-01, CFMA.

⁹⁸ ‘刚果(金)情况介绍’ [‘Introduction to the situation in Congo-Kinshasa’], October 1–7, 1964 108–00509-03, CFMA.

⁹⁹ ‘博歇利同我馆谈话情况’ [‘Bocheley discusses with our embassy’], December 1, 1964 12, in ‘刚果(金)全国解放委员会内部分歧及我援助其物资分配问题’ [‘CNL internal division and the distribution of our assistance’], September 5–December 2, 1964, 105–00508-02, CFMA.

¹⁰⁰ Brazinsky, Winning the Third World, 266.

¹⁰¹ ‘关于邀请刚果斯但利维尔政府国防长苏米亚洛访华事’ [‘The issue of inviting Soumialot to visit China’], December 4–10, 1964, 108–01345-01, 9, CFMA.

¹⁰² ‘刚果(利)全国解放委员会驻外代表阿仆杜拉伊.耶罗迪亚向我驻外使馆谈国内斗争形势’ [‘CNL foreign representative discusses about domestic struggles’], January 11, 1965, 108–00615-01, CFMA.

¹⁰³ Ibid., 16.

¹⁰⁴ Kabila was absent in this meeting, contrary to Guevara’s diaries. See Guevara, The African Dream, xxii.

¹⁰⁵ Brazinsky, Winning the Third World, 266–7.

¹⁰⁶ ‘周恩来总理访问坦桑尼亚时接见刚果(金)革命最高委员会主席苏米亚谈话记录’ [‘Minutes of meeting between Zhou Enlai and Soumialot during his visit to Tanzania’], June 5, 1965, 108–01423-01, CFMA.

¹⁰⁷ Liao Chengzhi (1906–83) was the vice minister of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party at the time.

¹⁰⁸ ‘以苏米为首的刚果(利)革命最高委员会代表团访华接待方案、简报及苏米亚洛访华反应’ [‘Reception plan, briefing, and reaction towards Soumialot’s visit to China’], August 5–October 10, 1965, 108–00616-01, CFMA.

¹⁰⁹ ‘以廖承志为首的中国代表团以苏米亚洛为首的刚果(金)革命最高委员会代表团第一次谈话记录’ [‘First minutes of meeting between Liao Chengzhi and Soumialot’], August 20, 1965, 108–01422-01, CFMA.

¹¹⁰ ‘以廖承志为首的中国代表团同以苏米亚洛为首的刚果(金)革命最高委员会代表团第二次会谈记录’ [‘Second minutes of meeting between Liao Chengzhi and Soumialot’], August 21, 1965, 108–01422-02, CFMA.

¹¹¹ In April 1965, some 120 Cuban soldiers under Guevara entered eastern Congo through Tanzania, which was not known by the Soviet Union at least as late as September 1965. See Piero Gleijeses, ‘Havana’s Policy in Africa, 1959–1976: New Evidence from Cuban Archives’, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, nos. 8–9 (Winter 1996–7), 6.

¹¹² ‘Second minutes of meeting between Liao Chengzhi and Soumialot’, August 21, 1965.

¹¹³ ‘毛泽东主席接见以苏米亚洛为首的刚果(金)革命最高委员会代表团的谈话记录’ [‘Minutes of meeting between Mao Zedong and Soumialot’], August 15, 1965, 108–01422-03, CFMA.

¹¹⁴ ‘Underlying the concept was Mao’s “post-revolution anxiety”, a psychological/conceptual force constantly pushing him to persist in a revolutionary agenda for China’s domestic and external policies’. See Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 10.

¹¹⁵ Crawford Young, ‘The Portuguese Coup and Zaire’s Southern Africa Policy’, in Southern Africa Since the Portuguese Coup, ed. John Seiler (New York: Routledge, 1980), 195–212.

¹¹⁶ Lazlo Passemiers, Decolonisation and Regional Geopolitics: South Africa and the ‘Congo Crisis’, 1960–1965 (London: Routledge, 2019), 3.

Additional information

Funding

This work was sponsored by Shanghai Pujiang Programme [2021PJC016].

Notes on contributors

Jodie Yuzhou Sun

Jodie Yuzhou Sun is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of History, Fudan University, China and a research fellow at the International Studies Group, University of the Free State, South Africa. Her research interests are China-Africa relations, Cold War history in the global South and global history of socialist ideas. She has published in Cold War History, International Journal of African Historical Studies and Journal of Southern African Studies. Her monograph entitled Kenya and Zambia’s Relations with China is to be published by James Currey.