Uneasy Allies? China and Russia Face the West

By Henry Srebrnik, [Moncton, NB] Times & Transcript

A common ideology, paradoxically, once drove them apart. But realpolitik has now turned them into allies. After all, the enemy of your enemy is your friend.

For the first three decades of its existence, the Soviet Union was, apart from Mongolia, the sole Communist country in the world. In 1949, it was joined by the new People’s Republic of China (PRC).

At first, all seemed well. The new Chinese Communist leader, Mao Zedong, travelled to Moscow in 1950 and met with Joseph Stalin, secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the acknowledged head of the world Communist movement.

The USSR promised economic assistance to China and to protect it in case of another war with Japan. Moscow also sent over 20,000 advisors to the PRC and helped construct over 200 industrial projects.

But Mao was nonetheless less than pleased by the Soviet treatment. While China was provided with $300 million in aid, it was in the form of repayable loans, including interest. China also had to recognize continued Soviet control over Mongolia and influence in Manchuria.

As well, though China bore the brunt of the Korean War that began a few months later, on the Communist side, yet it had to pay back to the USSR $1.35 billion for weapons that the Soviets had supplied to China. Over one million Chinese troops had fought against the American-led alliance, with over 700,000 casualties.

Much worse lay ahead. In February 1956, in a major speech to the 20^th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, the new Soviet leader who followed Stalin’s death in 1953, shocked the Communist world by denouncing the former dictator’s crimes.

His policy of destalinization had widespread repercussions, including in Beijing. Chinese Communists had been taught to admire Stalin, and Mao, who ruled along the same lines, was particularly offended.

In foreign affairs Khrushchev pursued a policy of “peaceful coexistence” with the capitalist West. Mao denounced this too, as decadent and revisionist. He insisted that the Soviets continue to prioritize revolution worldwide.

At a November 1958 summit Mao learned that the Soviets would insist on retaining control over any warheads sent to China and would not share missile technology. When the Soviets also failed to back the Chinese in their conflicts with Taiwan and India, Sino-Soviet tensions increased. On July 16, 1960, the USSR recalled all its specialists from China.

The Sino-Soviet split shattered the unity of the Communist movement and turned Beijing and Moscow into bitter rivals for leadership in the Communist world. By 1969 the two powers almost came to war along their border in the far east. They never ceased warring over their interpretations of Marxism-Leninism.

But all this is now ancient history and re-reading the polemics between them regarding correct Communist doctrine feels like being a witness to debates between theologians of a long-forgotten religion. The Soviet Union has ceased to exist, and China is Communist in name only.

The two countries now deal with each other in purely pragmatic terms, as dictated by their economic, military, and political standing in the world, and in terms of their respective foreign policies. And this has brought them closer together.

The most influential bilateral relationship in Eurasia today is the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership, as the two sides continue to deepen their relations.

In defying the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping both have tapped into nationalist feelings. And they each seem set to rule their respective nations for the foreseeable future.

The two nations have overlapping interests. China is the world’s largest importer of oil and natural gas. Russia is the number two exporter of oil and the top for natural gas. This is a symbiotic economic partnership.

Geopolitically, China and Russia want recognition and a say when and where global leadership decisions are made. They share a common desire to limit American political and economic leverage in their neighborhoods. Neither wants to hear criticism of how they manage dissent within their own borders or listen to sermons on democracy for Taiwan and Ukraine.

So, when asked last October about the prospect of a formal military alliance with China, Putin replied, “Theoretically it is quite possible.”