Foreign affairs with Korea and the Sino-Soviet split

In 1949, a new China was formed with Beijing as its capital. The communist leaders hoped for a peaceful country and to regain their glory taken by the imperialists.

In January 1950, Mao Tse-tung and Joseph Stalin met in Moscow. The USSR recognised the sovereignty of China over Manchuria and Xinjiang, located in northern Tibet, as these areas were economically influenced by the Soviets. China began to occupy these areas again.

Stalin and Mao

38th Parallel

Korea was a tributary state of China prior to the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-1895. After the war, it was controlled by Japan and Russia. In 1905, after the Russo-Japanese War, it remained under the Japanese Empire. When the Second World War ended in 1945 following the defeat of Japan, Korea was divided into two occupation zones through the 38th parallel by the Soviet Union and the US.

The original plan was to reunify Korea under an independent government. However, US-Soviet relations continued to deteriorate after the Second World War. Eventually, two governments emerged in Korea: the communists in the north and the anti-communists in the south.

On 25 June 1950, North Korean troops marched towards the south, an action approved by Joseph Stalin. In retaliation, the Truman administration ordered the deployment of US naval and aerial forces to assist South Korea.

The United Nations Security Council submitted a resolution to prevent the invasion as dictated in the organisation's charter. By September 1950, General Douglas MacArthur and UN troops had marched across the 38th parallel to resist the communist forces.

With the ongoing invasion of southern forces into the Korean north, Truman feared that the US-backed troops of the United Nations could trigger a Chinese invasion once they reached the Yalu river border between North Korea and China.

MacArthur assured the Truman administration that the Chinese would not retaliate. However, in November 1950 Chinese volunteer forces intervened on behalf of North Korea and eventually drove the UN troops southwards. This action was spurred on by Mao Tse-tung's intentions to spread communism in Asia.

Douglas MacArthur

A defence line was established along the 38th parallel between North and South Korea, signifying the Korean War. The Truman administration immediately sent the US Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Strait to defend the non-communist Chinese government. The US then regarded the nationalist government of Taiwan as the only legal representative of China and isolated communist China for more than two decades.

Sino-North Korean friendship

On July 1953, a cease-fire agreement ended the Korean War. China directed its government on a 'peaceful coexistence' approach. However, its resolve was tested during the conflict in Indochina.

By 1956-1966, the political relationship between Mao Tse-tung's People's Republic of China and the USSR soured. The main reason for this was their differences in their interpretation of socialism as defined by Marxism-Leninism. The Sino-Soviet split was the breakdown in the relations of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union – two of the world's largest communist powers.

Glossary of Terms

Hundred Flowers Campaign

The campaign that aimed to promote the idea that people, specifically the intellectuals, could voice their constructive criticism of the government as opposed to hateful and vengeful criticism

Anti-Rightist Purge

The 1957 movement launched by the PRC against the Hundred Flowers Campaign critics. It targeted intellectuals and students who boldly participated in the campaign.

First Five Year Plan

The first continuous project of the People's Republic of China that started in 1953

Great Leap Forward

The programme with a main goal to rival western industries, specifically the UK and the US

Lysenkoism

A pseudo- scientific movement in which it was believed that farmers could cultivate 'super crops' that were 16 times more productive by exposing seeds to damp and then planting them deep underground and close together

Four Pests Campaign

An action taken by Mao Tse-tung towards public hygiene. It aimed to exterminate four pests: rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows

Cooperative

The concept that Mao Tse-tung created that aimed to create more profit through the collaboration of poor and wealthy peasants by combining their land

Commune

An administrative division in the People's Republic of China, which was replaced by the township in 1983

Marriage Law

The law passed in China on 1 May 1950 that gave Chinese women equality with men

Lotus Feet

The foot-binding tradition of the crippling and deforming of the feet by applying tight binding to young women's feet, aged four to nine, to modify the size and shape to resemble a lotus flower

Thought Reform

The movement in China that started in September 1951 and called for intellectuals to change their thoughts

Great Chinese Famine

The famine that struck China and brought 16-23 million deaths while other records suggest the number is as high as 40 million. This was the cause of the Great Leap Forward.