Nuclear fantasies haunted Sino-Soviet clash
- Source: Global Times
- [23:04 May 19 2010]
- Comments
Li Danhui
Editor's Note:
A recent article published in History Reference magazine claims that the Soviet Union was seriously considering a nuclear attack on China in 1969, at the height of the Sino-Soviet conflict.
Since the magazine is part of the State-owned People's Daily group, this has drawn some attention from the foreign media. Does this reflect shifts in modern Sino-Russian diplomacy? What really happened in 1969?
Global Times (GT) reporter Li Yanjie talked with Li Danhui (Li), a researcher at the Cold War International History Studies Center, East China Normal University, on this issue.
GT: History Reference magazine published an article in April, claiming that the US had helped to stop a Soviet nuclear attack plan on China. Do you agree with it?
Li: I think the planned Soviet nuclear surgical strike on China was actually more bluffing than a real plan, although the Soviets had published articles on the plan and might have used diplomats to probe US opinion. I think the US might have unintentionally helped to prevent the so-called nuclear attack.
We can verify some facts in the article concerning historical events, as the CIA has released some materials concerning the Sino-Soviet border clashes. However, I really doubt the emotional expressions used in the article, such as "Nikita Khrushchev shouted angrily."
GT: There's a range of opinions about what these plans signified. What do you think?
Li: I think it was actually a form of nuclear deterrence by the Soviets aimed against China. In fact, during the first negotiation over the two countries' border in 1954, the Soviets threatened the possibility of nuclear attack.
In June 1964, the two sides were able to reach a preliminary agreement on the eastern section of the border. The Soviets agreed to demarcate disputes waters according to international rules and to return some islands to China.
Meeting a Japanese delegation in July 1964, Chairman Mao Zedong said that Tsarist Russia had stripped China of vast territories in Siberia and to the east of Lake Baikal over a century ago, and China hadn't presented a bill for that.
Later the Japanese delegation leaked Mao's words. This cast a serious shadow on Sino-Soviet border negotiations. The head of the Chinese delegation, Zeng Yongquan, said that China wouldn't rule out the use of force to get back the territories lost by the Qing empire to Russia. So the first border negotiations finally broke up.
On September 2, 1964, Pravda, the official Soviet newspaper, reported Mao's comments to the Japanese delegation and published an editorial warning of Chinese territorial designs.
On September 15, 1964, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said, in conversation with another Japanese delegation, that the Soviet Union would use destructive weapons against any country trying to seize its territory. This was nuclear deterrence directed against China, and part of the Sino-Soviet split of that year.
China and the Soviet Union had been quarrelling since 1960.
