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China and Russia share a 7250km border and in the 19th-century when the west was dividing China up between themselves, Russia took Chinese territories in Mongolia, the north Amur River and parts of Manchuria. After the Soviets left Manchuria in 1945 they took 2 billion USD worth of equipment from the area.

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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was encouraged by the USSR success of Bolshevik.
Despite Guomindang (GMD), led by Jiang Jieshi and the CCP were enemies, they agreed on an uneasy truce. This was for the purpose to unify against the Japanese invaders. After the withdraw of Japanese invaders in 1945, CCP and GMD were back to enemies until 1949 when Mao Zendong the leader of CCP emerged victorious.
Although GMD was anti communist, the USSR was also supporting them because they promised to give the territory to the USSR if they won.

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After the victory of CCP, Soviet invited Mao to Moscow and produced the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance. Soviets supported and praised the establishment of communist China.
However, USSR was reluctant to sign the treaty to support China. China was also frustrated about the insulting attitude of Soviets to China during conferences.

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1950-1953
North Korea (China support) vs South Korea (US support)

When the US pushed the frontline close to the Chinese border, Stalin encouraged the PRC to send troops to help North Korea (he hoped the two countries to weaken). USSR gave material assistance to 1 million Chinese troops, but then demanded to the PRC to pay for the supply.

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The 'Secret Speech'
Khrushchev attacking Stalin's crimes against the party --> Mao takes it personally because of the style of his leadership
Hungarian Uprising(1956)
Failure of USSR to contain reactionary forces
'Peaceful co-existence' with West
Mao saw this as ideological heresy

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At the conference, Mao and PRC spokesperson stated their ideological stance. Mao and PRC called on the USSR to  abandon ‘revisionism’, and blamed the detente with Western capitalists.
They started to see themselves as the ‘real leader’ of international revolutionary Communism.

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Mao launched the GLF, which is the plan to rapidly develop Chinese agriculture and industry. China aimed to outproduce UK in steel in just 15 years.
However, the activities promoted for the plan were ineffective. Construction of backyard steel furnaces failed to produce high-quality metals, and close cropping techniques ignored the scientific knowledges. It caused deaths of millions of Chinese. Mao resigned the PRC State Chairman because of this.
Soviet Union criticized the ineffectiveness of GLF, but Mao was personally furious about it.

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Khrushchev attempted to ease the tension with the PRC but Mao's attitude toward Khrushchev was hostile (air conditioner, mosquitoes, swimming pool etc). The talks didn't go well and PRC took the opportunity to attack Soviet policy.

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PRC wanted reunification with Taiwan (GMD leader Jiang Jieshi is ruling).
PRC attacked Taiwan in 1950 but stopped because the US was protecting Taiwan. In 1958 Mao tried to test the US again (without telling the USSR), by giving an impression that they were going to attack. The US responded by preparing a full scale war but Mao did not attack because he was not prepared and did not have the Soviet's support.

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The USSR withdrew aid to Albania
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Khrushchev's speech in the Moscow congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: attack on the Albanian Party leadership
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Offended the PRC too
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PRC replaced the aid the USSR was giving to Albania

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When the Soviet offered to be a mediator, of the Sino-Indian War, Mao viewed it as outrageous hypocrisy because the Soviets were supplying India with MIG fighters.

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China was against Khrushchev’s policy of peaceful coexistence. Mao publicly denounced the reaction of USSR, and the lack of commitment to the revolutionary cause.

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'Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution' by Mao. Launched May 1966.
Aim: to eliminate the return of liberal/bourgeois thinking/behaviour.
What: (Mostly) Younger people were encouraged to denounce their elders (Teachers, writers, intellectuals, musicians, older leaders etc.) and send them for 're-education'
Result: No clear directives on who to attack, so the attacks got out of hand. Half a million people died. Mao got rid of his critics and resume supreme control

・No reconciliation between the PRC & the USSR even after Khrushchev leaves office in 1964
・Soviets denounced the revolution as total fanaticism and criticised Mao for creating a state of anarchy
・The USSR accused the PRC on various other propaganda fronts during the revolution --> Mao called other communist countries to follow them instead of the USSR in response to the 'false' accusations

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The debate about military power, particularly nuclear power continued between the Sino-Soviet.
In the 1957 the Soviet lunched the Sputnik satellite.
Mao thought that a nuclear war was inevitable while Khrushchev wanted to use it to convince the United States to pursue ‘co-

existence’.
Test-Ban Treaty of 1963: agreement by the USSR and Western nuclear powers to stop atmospheric testing of atomic weapons
--> Mao thought the USSR was abandoning its role as revolutionary leaders.

The USSR stopped helping China to make a nuclear weapon. The documents were shredded but China hired people to put them back together and made nuclear weapons.

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Soviet force entered Czechoslovakia, when they attempted to liberalize their nation. Mao went against this, since they recognized this as an action not being “truly socialist”. They were also afraid of the Soviet military force to be used against China.

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A war at the Sino-Soviet border evolved from numbers of border incidents. According to the Chinese, the Soviets had violated their border 4189 times in the period up to 1969.

- no escalation to all-out nuclear war
- 2 most powerful communist countries to the brink

lowest point in sino-soviet relations?
--> border incidents to a full-scale war
--> PRC and the USSR realigned missiles to face one another
--> intensification of the rivalry to be the leading communist nation

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Indochina was the main reason for Sino-Soviet split.
In 1954, the PRC was involved in a peace talks which ended the problems in Indochina

In 1979, February 17, China invaded Vietnam.  In response, the Soviets increased their backing for the Vietnamese, and both sides claimed the other as the aggressor.

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Mao’s death, adoption of new leader Deng, overthrow of anti-Soviet Gang of Four in China, and the death of Brezhnev lead to the relaxation of conflict between China and Soviet Union. However, moves towards the improvement of relationship was not effective mainly because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which China condemned as “imperial expansionism”.

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A conflict between the civilians (for democracy) and the Chinese army

Peaceful Protest by the students
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a million people on hunger strike to support the students

Army opened fire and thousands of civilians died

PRC's brutal response was condemned around the world.