On July 31, 1958, Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, the former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, visited China for the second time. During this visit to China, Khrushchev rarely mentioned the issue of nuclear weapons, believing that China should not possess nuclear weapons, such dangerous weapons can only be possessed by superpowers such as the Soviet Union and the United States. ”
Chairman Mao met with Soviet leader Khrushchev
At the beginning of Khrushchev's rise to power, inheriting Stalin's China policy, Sino-Soviet relations showed a good start, and on November 4, 1957, Chairman Mao led a Chinese delegation to visit the Soviet Union and had a harmonious conversation with Khrushchev. Due to China's huge investment in the defense economy in the Korean War at that time, which brought national production to a standstill, the Soviet Union also further increased its assistance to China's difficulties, and China also expressed solidarity with the isolated Soviet Union at that time on the issue of chaos in Eastern Europe after the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which also enabled the Soviet Union to temporarily get rid of its predicament.
During Chairman Mao's visit to the Soviet Union, Sino-Soviet friendly relations reached their peak, but this relationship soon took a turn for the worse a year later, and Khrushchev's China policy became cautious and overbearing, and he began to intervene in China's domestic and foreign affairs.
After the founding of New China, the Kuomintang authorities that had collapsed to the island of Taiwan continued to hold on to the isolated island with the support of the United States and stubbornly resisted, and the "7th Fleet" of the US Navy even marched directly into the Taiwan Strait to act as a "protective umbrella" for the Kuomintang authorities. The Taiwan issue has not been resolved, and Khrushchev, who is far away in Moscow, is also extremely "concerned", and he repeatedly put forward the term "combined fleet" in 1957 and 1958, believing that China did not have a powerful fleet to deal with the US Navy's 7th Fleet at that time, and that the Soviet Union could cooperate with China to gather the naval forces of the two countries to form a joint fleet to jointly deal with the "7th Fleet".
Subsequently, in order to deter the Kuomintang authorities in Taiwan and show China's determination to solve the Taiwan issue, on August 23, 1958, the People's Liberation Army gathered on the fujian coast to carry out a large-scale shelling of the large and small Kinmen Island, and in just 45 minutes of shelling, a total of 36,000 shells were fired at Kinmen Island. Khrushchev was extremely dissatisfied with the PLA's shelling of the large and small Kinmen Islands, believing that China had acted without prior notice to the Soviet side and violated the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance, and Alliance. This was also the first obvious rift in Sino-Soviet relations.
During Khrushchev's three visits to China in his lifetime, including his first visit to China at the beginning of his inauguration on September 29, 1954, and his appearance at Tiananmen Square to participate in China's National Day celebrations, Sino-Soviet relations have been showing a steady upward trend during this period, reaching a peak after Chairman Mao led a Chinese delegation to return to the Soviet Union on November 4, 1957.
Expert on Soviet aid to China
By June 20, 1958, the Soviet Union unilaterally tore up the Agreement on New National Defense Technologies and canceled technical assistance for sophisticated weapons such as missiles and nuclear weapons against China, a sudden move that clearly cast a shadow over Sino-Soviet relations. On July 31 of the same year, Khrushchev's second visit to China was different from the extremely high-standard welcome ceremony given by China during his first visit, this time China did not hold a formal ceremony to welcome the head of state at the airport, and the Chinese side even canceled the welcome speech and welcome slogan. Although Chairman Mao personally went to the airport to greet Khrushchev, the atmosphere was already very different from the last time, and on the way to Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, no one said anything, and the whole scene was quite serious.
Subsequently, at the talks table, Chairman Mao and Khrushchev had a formal confrontation, and the wine table was even more verbal, which highly reflected the wisdom and wisdom of China's first generation of leaders.
During Khrushchev's current visit to China, he also rarely mentioned the sensitive topic of nuclear weapons. As early as January 15, 1955, China launched a nuclear weapons development program code-named 02, which was fully launched in 1958, and the Soviet Union also gave strong support and assistance to this. The Soviet Union and the United States, one of the very few countries with nuclear weapons at the time, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan as early as August 15, 1945, before Japan surrendered, and caused tens of thousands of civilian deaths and the destruction of a large number of buildings. The atomic bomb is incredibly destructive, but it is an important weapon to show the deterrence of great powers, and China has a strong determination to develop nuclear weapons, although it started late.
Chairman Mao and Khrushchev
On the morning of August 1, a Soviet delegation went to Zhongnanhai to meet Chairman Mao. In the parlor of Chairman Mao's official residence, an atmosphere of restraint and mutual vigilance hung over.
In the past, the Soviet Union actively supported China's development of nuclear weapons, but this was the first time that the issue of nuclear weapons was openly discussed as a topic. After a brief and customary greeting, Khrushchev single-handedly raised the key questions of the trip, regarding nuclear weapons, whether China had the conditions to develop nuclear weapons in the international context at that time, and how to use this super lethal weapon after China possessed nuclear weapons.
Khrushchev talked aloud about the friendship between the Soviet Union and China, the importance of the two countries in the socialist camp and the common goal of building socialism and communism, and proposed comprehensive cooperation in the in-depth development and consolidation of the fundamental interests of the two peoples. Speaking of this, he also stressed the special responsibility of the Soviet Union and China in ensuring just and solid peace and international security issues in the nuclear age.
Chairman Mao patiently listened to Khrushchev's speech, and when Khrushchev had finished, he summed up a sentence and said: "Therefore, as far as we are concerned, it is very important to have nuclear weapons, but unfortunately, we have not yet built them." Chairman Mao is extremely far-sighted about the existence of nuclear threats; he has already foreseen the importance of nuclear weapons in future wars; the United States and the Soviet Union have developed nuclear weapons; Britain, France, and other countries are also actively developing nuclear weapons; China cannot lag behind other countries in terms of nuclear weapons; and its determination to develop nuclear weapons will not change."
The first atomic bomb of China's own production exploded successfully
However, Khrushchev has obviously taken China's development of nuclear weapons as a provocation, in his view, only a superpower such as the United States and the Soviet Union can have nuclear weapons, the United States and the Soviet Union play a leading role in the two camps of the East and the West, and it is natural to have nuclear weapons. We will defend China with nuclear weapons as much as we defend ourselves. This point has long been stated in the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance. ”
In the face of Khrushchev's rude intervention in China's development of nuclear weapons, Chairman Mao gave a tough counterattack during the talks, replying: "We are very grateful for your kindness, but China is a big country with its own independent sovereignty, so it must have its own atomic bomb." If you do not wish to give us nuclear weapons, please help us build the atomic bomb. ”
Khrushchev pressed a step forward and said, "Do you know that the atomic bomb is expensive to build?" Among other conditions, all the power stations under construction in your country will not be able to support this huge project. ”
But Chairman Mao confidently replied to Khrushchev: "We have made full preparations for the development of the atomic bomb, and we believe that we have the ability to build it." ”
Khrushchev immediately warned: "But the American 'paper tiger' has nuclear teeth." This sentence implies that the two atomic bombs dropped by the United States on the Japanese mainland in 1945 prompted Japan to surrender unconditionally, and it is difficult to say that the United States, which possesses nuclear weapons, will use atomic bombs against China again.
Bulganin, a member of the Soviet Politburo present, also said afterwards: "To fight 'tigers,' we must use cannons, not flies." ”
Chairman Mao simply smiled dismissively at Khrushchev's warning. We won the Korean War, won the most advanced weapons and equipment in the world at that time, the military game between China and the United States will continue in the future, China is not afraid of the United States, on the contrary, it is necessary to shorten the gap with the United States, and the development of nuclear weapons, as soon as possible to build atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs, is China's established policy, China will not give up the development of nuclear weapons because of the Soviet Union's warning.
The first hydrogen bomb made by China itself exploded successfully
In July 1960, Sino-Soviet relations were on the verge of a rupture, the Soviet Union canceled all aid to China, withdrew all aid personnel, and naturally suspended cooperation in assisting China in the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear submarines. After the Soviets withdrew their experts, China was determined to accomplish the task on its own. In 1962, a special leading body headed by Zhou Enlai was established. On October 16, 1964, through the joint efforts of a large number of scientific and technological personnel, cadres and workers, the first atomic bomb manufactured by China itself was successfully exploded in Lop Nur in Xinjiang. The successful explosion of the first atomic bomb represents a new level of Science and Technology in China, effectively breaking the nuclear monopoly and nuclear blackmail of the superpowers, and enhancing China's international status.
On June 17, 1967, the first hydrogen bomb manufactured by China was successfully tested in the explosion of Lop Nur. It took China a short decade to successfully develop atomic and hydrogen bombs, and whenever a mushroom cloud rose from Lop Nur, our Government solemnly declared: China conducts necessary and restrictive nuclear tests and develops nuclear weapons solely for the sake of defense, for self-defense, for the sake of defending world peace, in order to break nuclear blackmail and nuclear threats, to prevent nuclear war, and ultimately to eliminate nuclear weapons. China will not be the first to use nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances.
Source: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the former SOVIET Union. Fettering's Memoirs