In February 1950, China and the Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, which was a major diplomatic achievement in the early days of the founding of New China, that is, the first treaty signed with foreign governments based on equality, which opened the door for New China to abolish all unequal treaties. However, the conclusion of the Sino-Soviet New Covenant was not smooth sailing.
On December 6, 1949, Mao Zedong took the first special train of New China, code-named 9002, and began a trip to Moscow for more than two months, which was not accompanied by domestic media reporters. At that time, the domestic media was still in the stage of institutional construction, and the operating system was not perfect, including Xinhua News Agency, which had not yet set up a branch in Moscow. How to overcome difficulties and show China's voice on the stage of international public opinion is testing the newly established Red regime.
△ On December 16, 1949, Mao Zedong, Chairman of the CENTRAL Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, visited the Soviet Union, and when he arrived at moscow station, Mao Zedong was warmly welcomed by Soviet party and government leaders Bulganin (first from right), Molotov (second from right), and others. Image source: Communist Party of China News Network (hereinafter the same)
The intimate atmosphere is created, and it is difficult to hide the unequal status
On December 16, Mao Zedong and his party arrived in Moscow. The apparent reason for the visit was to be invited to participate in the celebration of Stalin's seventieth birthday together with the delegations of the Communist Party of China, but in the eyes of the top decision-makers of the Chinese Communist Party, the signing of a new two-state treaty with the Soviet Union was the most important task of the trip.
In order to create a good atmosphere of public opinion, from December onwards, the domestic press began to present praise to Stalin one after another, calling him a "mentor" and "the inheritor of a great cause", and reported on various birthday celebrations organized throughout the country. Mao Zedong even carefully selected the first state gift sent by New China. The Soviet Union also attached great importance to the first foreign visit of the new Chinese leader, and sent the Soviet ambassador to China, Roshen, who had been in office for only two months, to accompany Mao Zedong and his party to the Soviet Union, and many Soviet leaders, including Molotov, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of The Communist Party of China (Brazzaville), and Bulganin, vice chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, greeted Mao Zedong at the station and arranged for Mao Zedong to stay at Stalin's second villa.
Stalin's first meeting with Mao Zedong did not turn out to be satisfactory. According to the recollection of the translator Zhe, the more than two hours of talks were almost exclusively spoken by Stalin, and Mao Zedong could only interject occasionally. When Mao Zedong finally brought up the question of the Sino-Soviet treaty, Stalin immediately took up this sensitive topic and blocked the room for further discussion in a tone of informing, saying that the treaty was concluded on the basis of the Yalta Agreement, and that in order to maintain the world pattern, the Soviet leaders decided not to change any of the provisions of the treaty, but in view of the loss of legitimacy of the nationalist government in Nanjing, the original contracting party, could amend the treaty with New China two years later to improve the legitimacy of the treaty.
At the first meeting, the Soviet side had a negative attitude toward the revision of the treaty, and Mao Zedong's mood was not happy. However, the People's Daily published an editorial on December 18 that gave enough comment to the talks between the two sides. The editorial praised Mao Zedong's visit to the Soviet Union as "the highest peak of the development of friendship between the peoples of the two major countries."
On December 21, Mao Zedong was invited to attend stalin's seventieth birthday celebration according to the established schedule. The Soviet side deliberately arranged for Mao Zedong to sit at Stalin's side and arranged for the Chinese delegation to speak first among the thirteen foreign delegations. During this period, Xinhua News Agency successively broadcast reports about Mao Zedong's attendance at Stalin's seventieth birthday meeting and Stalin's banquet to welcome Mao Zedong. However, in the face of the Soviet side's high-standard reception in form, but avoiding the practice of talking about substantive issues, Mao Zedong felt that it was necessary to make our purpose clear.
△ On December 21, 1949, Mao Zedong attended the celebration of Stalin's 70th birthday
Borrowing the "west wind", the negotiation peak turns around
On December 24, Mao Zedong held a second meeting with Stalin. During the five-and-a-half-hour talks, the two sides talked about many issues, including the Vietnam issue, the Japan issue, and the India issue, but Stalin did not mention the Sino-Soviet treaty at all. Faced with Stalin's avoidance, Mao adopted a faceless strategy. He first rejected the Soviet Union's offer to visit the whole country, then canceled the various visits and lectures arranged by the Soviet Union for himself, and stayed alone in the villa.
As the supreme leader of the new China on his visit to the number one power in the socialist camp, Mao Zedong's whereabouts have always attracted the attention of the Western media. However, after Stalin's birthday celebrations, representatives of various countries left Moscow one after another, but the outside world found that they did not see any trace of Mao Zedong's activities in the Soviet Union, nor did they hear about the agreement reached between the two countries after the meeting between the fuehrers, let alone the information that Mao Zedong had set off for China. At this time, the British Reuters agency issued a sensational message, which seemed to confirm everyone's speculation: Mao Zedong was put under house arrest by Stalin in the Soviet Union. As a result, stirred by international public opinion, the Soviet Union fell into passivity.
At this time, with the smooth progress of the domestic liberation process, the diplomatic isolation of New China has been loosened, and there have been more and more new trends in the international community. Countries such as Burma, India, Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom are all ready to recognize or establish diplomatic relations with New China. Seeing that the Red regime led by the Communist Party of China was about to liberate all of China and the nationalist sentiment in China was rising, Stalin's position began to loosen; while Western public opinion continued to create rumors of catching wind and catching shadows, and the capitalist camp frequently sent out news of overtures to China, which just became the booster of the Sino-Soviet alliance and the opportunity to conclude a new Sino-Soviet treaty.
On January 2, 1950, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an article signed by Mao Zedong, "Answer to the TASS Reporter's Question." Soon, many domestic newspapers and periodicals reprinted. In the article, Mao Zedong wasted no time in expressing the purpose of his visit: "The length of my stay in the Soviet Union is determined in part by the time required to resolve various issues concerning the interests of the People's Republic of China, first and foremost the existing question of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance. Mao Zedong, at the suggestion of Wang Jiaxiang, The Chinese Ambassador to the Soviet Union, accepted the newspaper's visit to the Soviet Union in the form of "Answering a Question from a TASS Reporter" and put the issue of the Sino-Soviet Treaty on the surface, exerting invisible pressure on the Soviet side. For Stalin, the soviet media agreed to Publish Mao Zedong's answers to reporters' questions, which showed that he was willing to reopen the treaty.
On the afternoon of January 2, on the afternoon of January 2, molotov and Mikoyan went to Mao Zedong's residence to talk and ask mao Zedong's opinion on the Sino-Soviet treaty and other matters. The two sides have made a preliminary agreement to sign a new bilateral treaty. On the evening of January 2, Mao Zedong sent a telegram to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to inform the Soviets of the situation, saying that "there has been an important development in the work here in the past two days" and explicitly proposing that Zhou Enlai "leave from Beijing on January 9 and come to Moscow by train."
△ Mao Zedong during his visit to the Soviet Union
Xiongwen faced the battle, and the pace was not sharp
After the article "Answer to the TASS Reporter's Question" was issued, China and the Soviet Union re-entered a new track of negotiation on the revision of the treaty. But the West is not content to see the rise of a strong, united socialist camp.
On January 5, 1950, US President Harry S. Truman officially issued the "Statement on the Taiwan Question". Just 7 days later, US Secretary of State Acheson delivered a speech at the All-American Press Club, which not only once again showed the world the determination of the United States to "abandon Taiwan", but also indiscriminately slandered the ongoing alliance and cooperation between China and the Soviet Union, and fabricated that in the future, China will be like Mongolia and obey the Soviet Union in everything.
On January 17, Mao Returned to Moscow. On the same day, Molotov and Vyshinsky visited Mao Zedong's lodgings and handed him the text of Acheson's speech to convey Stalin's suggestion that an official statement be issued by China, the Soviet Union, and Mongolia to refute Acheson's speech. Mao Zedong immediately agreed.
On January 20, on the day of Zhou Enlai's arrival in Moscow, Xinhua News Agency broadcast a speech signed by Hu Qiaomu, then director of China's General Information Administration, to Xinhua News Agency," entitled "Hu Qiaomu, Director of the Information Administration of the Central People's Government, Today, Made a Statement with Xinhua News Agency to Refute US Secretary of State Acheson's Shameless Rumors," which was prominently displayed on the front page of people's daily on January 21. In fact, mao zedong personally completed the article on the evening of January 18, "attacking the shield of the son with the spear of the son", and through Acheson's speech and the conversation with reporters after the return of former US consul general in Shenyang, Wald, punctured the lie that "the Soviet Union is consolidating northern China, and this method implemented in Outer Mongolia is almost implemented in Manchuria."
Mao Zedong and Stalin attended the signing ceremony of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance and related agreements
The new covenant was signed to celebrate the Alliance
On January 22, 1950, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai held the third Sino-Soviet talks with Stalin. In 24 days, after arduous negotiations, China and the Soviet Union re-concluded a new treaty, and the Soviet Union agreed to give up its privileges in China, accepted the Chinese side's terms on Lushun, Dalian and other issues, and provided China with a loan of 300 million US dollars at a preferential interest rate of one percent per annum.
At 6 p.m. on February 14, the signing ceremony of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance, the Sino-Soviet Agreement on China's Changchun Railway, Lushunkou, and Dalian, and the Sino-Soviet Agreement on Lending to the People's Republic of China was held at the Moscow Kremlin. On the same day, China and the Soviet Union issued a proclamation on the conclusion of a new treaty and agreement between the two countries, and declared that the old treaties and agreements between China and the Soviet Union were invalid.
On February 14, Xinhua News Agency broadcast the news of the signing of three documents and the full text of the documents, and published an editorial revised by Mao Zedong entitled "A New Era of Sino-Soviet Friendly Cooperation." The editorial reviewed the history of the three successive treaties signed by China and the Soviet Union since the October Revolution in the Soviet Union, introduced the main contents of the new Sino-Soviet treaties of friendship and alliance, and other treaties and agreements, saying that the signing of these new treaties and new agreements "is a major action recently taken by the government authorities of China and the Soviet Union, which has brought the relations between the two major powers into a new era, and for the whole East and the world, it has great political importance and great historical significance."
Excerpt from | Leadership Digest November 2021
Source of manuscript | "Century Style"
This article is written by | Ho Le
Responsible Editor | Shadow
WeChat Editor | Young