#5
The Guardian (UK)
27 November 2001
The day Khrushchev and Chairman Mao saw red
Spitting images mark the end of the Sino-Soviet alliance
John Gittings in Shanghai
A vivid account of the day Nikita Khrushchev warned a Chinese general not to spit at him and Mao Zedong called Soviet leaders "timeservers" has been published for the first time.
The full text of the fiery meeting between the two communist giants reveals how bitterly they quarrelled when the Sino-Soviet alliance broke up 40 years ago.
And, with China now preparing to import oil from Siberia and relying increasingly on Russia for military hardware, the account also illustrates how relations have had to be rebuilt on a new basis.
The flashpoint came in Beijing on October 2 1959, when Khrushchev arrived straight from his historic Camp David summit with the US president Dwight Eisenhower.
US detente
The Soviet leader suspected that a recent clash on the Sino-Indian border had been designed to sabotage his efforts to reach detente with the US.
"Why did you have to kill people on the border with India?" he asked. Sarcastically rejecting Beijing's claim that India started it, he commented: "Yes, they [the Indian soldiers] began to shoot and they themselves fell dead."
When the former general and foreign affairs minister Chen Yi, who had been given the honorary title of marshal, joined the argument, Khrushchev went into a rage.
"Look at this lefty," he said. "Watch it, comrade Chen Yi, if you turn [any further] left, you may end up going to the right."
Chen Yi persisted, telling Khrushchev: "I am not afraid of your fury."
Khrushchev retorted: "You should not spit from the height of your marshal title. You do not have enough spit."
Elated by his warm reception in the US, Khrushchev failed to grasp Beijing's fear that China would be isolated by a detente between the two superpowers. Mao deeply resented the Soviet assumption of superiority towards China, which he described as the unacceptable behaviour of "a father towards his son". He also accused them of abandoning communist principles. "We ... have attached to you one label - timeservers," he told Khrushchev. He went on to complain that a Soviet declaration of neutrality in the Sino-Indian border clash had "made all imperialists happy".
The Soviet transcript of this bitter argument is about to be published in the bulletin of the cold war international history project in Washington. The project director, Christian Ostermann, calls it one of the most important Soviet-era documents available, allowing readers today to see "the opening salvoes of the Sino-Soviet split".
With his usual lack of tact, Khrushchev began the 1959 meeting by relaying a US request for China to release six Americans convicted of spying. The interpreters noted that Mao was visibly annoyed.
It was the last summit between the two leaders before the Sino-Soviet split became public in 1963. China accused the Soviets of refusing to help it become a nuclear power and of selling out to "US imperialism". The USSR claimed that Mao was willing to provoke a world war.
Relations have returned to normal only since the collapse of the Soviet Union. China now relies mainly on Russia for its main weapons systems, and agreement has been reached on a crude oil pipeline between Siberia and China.
Chinese foreign policy experts say that relations with Russia these days are on an entirely different basis. "Neither of us wants to be a super-power," one said, "and we have learned from our mistakes."
Next Article