IB History Nations - China Notes

The Cold War and China

CCP Consolidation and Cold War Context

1. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) won the civil war in 1949 and declared the People's Republic of China, immediately positioning the new state within the Cold War as a communist ally of the USSR.
2. The USA refused to recognise the PRC and instead supported Taiwan (Republic of China), creating a direct Cold War confrontation that shaped Chinese domestic and foreign policy for decades.
3. Mao used the Cold War threat of American imperialism to justify rapid industrialisation, mass political campaigns, and the elimination of internal opposition during the early years of the PRC.
4. Land reform, the suppression of counter-revolutionaries, and campaigns against landlords and capitalists were intensified by the atmosphere of Cold War crisis, with millions killed or persecuted.

The Korean War and Its Domestic Impact

1. China's intervention in the Korean War (1950-1953) cost an estimated 180,000 Chinese lives and placed enormous strain on the new state's limited resources.
2. The war was used domestically to launch the Resist America, Aid Korea campaign, which whipped up patriotic fervour and justified the persecution of anyone with Western connections.
3. Fighting the USA to a stalemate boosted CCP legitimacy and national pride, demonstrating that China could stand up to a superpower after a century of humiliation.

The Sino-Soviet Alliance and Split

1. The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship (1950) provided China with economic aid, military assistance, and thousands of Soviet advisers who helped build Chinese industry and infrastructure.
2. Tensions grew from the late 1950s over Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation, peaceful coexistence with the West, and Soviet refusal to share nuclear weapons technology, leading to the Sino-Soviet Split by 1960.
3. The withdrawal of Soviet advisers in 1960 was economically devastating, and the split forced China to pursue self-reliance, directly contributing to the disastrous Great Leap Forward.
4. By 1969, tensions had escalated to border clashes along the Ussuri River, and China faced the prospect of a two-front Cold War against both the USA and the USSR.

The Great Leap Forward

1. The Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) was Mao's attempt to rapidly industrialise China through collectivisation and backyard steel production, driven partly by Cold War competition to overtake Britain.