Is Communist China a Satellite?
CHANG, C.M.
Is Communist China a Satellite ? WE NOW COME to some crucial questions: What is the nature of the relationship between Red China and the Soviet Union? Is China an appendage of Moscow just like...
...After Stalin's death, Mao Tse-tung expressed his loyalty to the Malenkov leadership...
...The wisest course for the West to follow is to recognize the facts and make the best of a bad situation — t o help Peking enter the United Nations, to trade with it, and to give the Communist rulers at least an alternative to a completely pro-Soviet policy...
...Yet, when the order was given by Moscow he did not hesitate, even though he was risking a grave military defeat and the possible overthrow of his regime...
...Take the matter of Soviet advisers...
...Let us take a closer look at the facts...
...Yet, when the chips were down the Chinese Communist party sided unhesitatingly with Stalin...
...It did so in the belief that whoever controlled the state and Party apparatus in the Soviet Union was ipso facto the leader of world Communism to whom every good Communist must give allegiance...
...Now that they are masters of a great country, they feel that they must attach themselves even more closely to the USSR in order to consolidate their gains, build socialism as quickly as possible, win a place of influence in world affairs, and, above all, forward the cause of world Communism...
...they participate in policy formation and in drawing up laws and regulations affecting national life...
...Soviet leaders, in deference to China's importance in the Asian Communist movement, usually add the adjective "great" to the phrase "the Chinese people...
...She is, of course, far more important than the Eastern European states, but the difference is one of degree, not kind...
...Among the satellites, Red China is merely primus inter pares...
...In the 1920s, many Chinese Communists were in sympathy with Leon Trotsky...
...The free world must base its diplomatic planning on the answers to these questions...
...Communist China's loyalty to the Soviet Union is based on the conviction that the interests of the power center of world Communism—the USSR— and the interests of individual Communist parties and states are indivisible...
...True, they have shown an awareness of Chinese sensibilities...
...As a result, ideological decisions in Moscow are automatically followed in China, even when they do not directly concern China or are clearly not in her interests...
...They are apt to forget that the Chinese Communist party was a Soviet creation and that most of its top leaders were trained in Moscow...
...The liquidation of the Sino-Soviet joint enterprises, the purge of Kao Kang, who allegedly ruled Manchuria in the interests of the Soviet Union, the return of Port Arthur to China and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from that key port are all cited in support of this view...
...On June 9, only 16 days before the outbreak of hostilities, Mao Tse-tung told the Party Central Committee that the "People's Government" must now concentrate its energies on the following tasks: completion of the agrarian-reform program, proper adjustment of commerce and industry, and reduction of Government expenditures...
...Moreover, China and Russia are said to have national objectives which clash today as they have in the past, and some experts have ventured to predict that sooner or later the two Communist colossi will part company...
...In China, the Soviet Union is referred to as the "elder brother...
...The question is: Are they based on facts or on assumptions...
...Is China an appendage of Moscow just like the Eastern European satellites...
...When Khrushchev replaced Malenkov, Mao transferred his allegience to Khrushchev...
...He called for partial demobilization of the "People's Liberation Army" so that the policy of retrenchment could be carried out...
...Rather, Red China and Soviet Russia are equal or virtually equal partners...
...One can cite many illustrations of how Red China adjusts its policies to those of the Soviet Union...
...When the North Koreans invaded South Korea in June 1950, the Communist regime in China was less than a year old...
...To refuse obedience was a violation of Leninist discipline and treason to the Communist cause...
...Are we sure that Moscow's writ does not run in China as in Eastern Europe...
...The country was in ruins and the problem of rehabilitation was urgent...
...Are we sure that Soviet advisers in China are merely technical employes of the Government and nothing more...
...In December 1954, Nikita Khrushchev sharply criticized Soviet architects for their extravagance and their preoccupation with pompous pseudo-esthetics...
...However, he has not allowed his private feelings to interfere with public policy...
...In his greetings to the Congress, he had praised the Soviet CP, "nurtured with care by Stalin and his closest collaborators...
...Chinese Communist leaders have not concealed the fact that they accept Moscow's leadership with no reservations whatever...
...This is not a matter of loyalty to any particular individual or group...
...In the days when they were struggling for survival against tremendous odds, the Chinese Communists looked upon the Soviet Union as a source of encouragement and revolutionary support...
...These are persuasive arguments, which have gained a widespread hearing...
...But, whatever the nature of the differences, they do not imply rivalry or opposition...
...Are we sure that Chinese and Soviet interests are so fundamentally opposed to each other that they will inevitably clash...
...When Pravda broke the official silence on the anti-Stalin campaign in an editorial on March 28, the People's Daily reproduced it without comment...
...True, there are large numbers of Russians in China, but these are technical advisers invited by Peking and their status is no different from that of the Americans now serving in many underdeveloped countries...
...One may, of course, argue that this unity with the Soviet Union is purely voluntary...
...The blending of classical Chinese and modern designs in an effort to create a "national" style, which the Communists had hitherto encouraged, was abandoned because it was not in line with Khrushchev's pronouncement...
...In the current anti-Stalin drive, Mao signified his acceptance of the new line by publishing a major editorial in the People's Daily lauding the Soviet Party for its bold and forthright action...
...Most Western observers, it seems, are inclined to take Red China's political independence for granted...
...But their influence and pressure are felt everywhere...
...Careful study of the Communist press shows that Russians are to be found in Government ministries, in the provinces, in the armed forces, and in factories and mines...
...all fall in the category of "people's democracies...
...Mao may have known that the North Koreans were about to launch their attack, but he clearly did not know that he would have to intervene in the war...
...This was a matter which did not concern China at all...
...But the Kremlin can be expected to pursue a delicately balanced policy which, while trying to placate China's hunger for industrial expansion, will see to it that her expansion does not endanger the Soviet position in Asia...
...Stalin was little known and little respected...
...Without the Soviet Union, they maintain, there could not have been a "Chinese People's Republic," and they freely acknowledge their gratitude...
...he accepted the entire Stalinist development in Russia and has done his best to imitate Stalin's techniques of control...
...it is loyalty to the Communist cause...
...Yet, the effect was immediately felt in China...
...The People's Daily in Peking echoes Pravda as faithfully as other papers in China echo the People's Daily...
...Mao was and perhaps still is a profound admirer of the late Soviet dictator...
...Major pronouncements by Soviet leaders on Russian domestic and foreign policy are invariably reproduced at length in the Chinese Communist press and are regarded as binding on China...
...The Korean War is an even more important case in point...
...It is even said that in the past few years Peking has scored a definite victory over Moscow...
...They do not act as individuals but are organized in teams...
...They try to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible, avoiding positions of prominence and maintaining strict discipline...
...China is still critically dependent on Russia for arms, capital goods, and technical aid in her ambitious industrialization program...
...They are merely the disagreements which normally occur between the central and provincial authorities of a unified state...
...It is difficult for Westerners to appreciate the depth of this feeling...
...Mao and his party were probably taken by surprise by Khrushchev's "secret speech" at the 20th Soviet Party Congress last February...
...Or is it a sovereign state bound to Russia only by a treaty of alliance which can be broken or terminated whenever it has served its purpose...
...Of course, the fact that Communist China holds a subordinate position in relation to the Soviet Union does not mean that the two always see eye to eye...
...Almost two months passed before the Chinese Politburo finally joined the chorus in denouncing the "cult of the individual," but the delay merely emphasized its obligation to fall into line...
...But there can be no question as to who is the initiator of policies and who the follower, and as to who exercises a decisive influence on whom...
...Chou En-lai's long negotiations in the Kremlin in 1953, Bulganin and Khrushchev's secret talks with the Chinese leaders in Peking in 1954, and Mikoyan's hurried trip to China in April of this year all indicate differences of opinion and hard bargaining...
...Their activities are not confined to the technical level...
...They concede that Peking now speaks and acts as Moscow does, embraces the same ideals and follows the same methods...
...If by "satellite" we mean a nation which adjusts its policies to those of another nation, then Red China is without doubt a satellite...
...But they contend that there is no evidence of subordination...
Vol. 39 • September 1956 • No. 89
