10
Communist China and the Third World Evan Roe | Pomona ‘13
During the long rule of Mao Zedong, Chinese foreign policy went through a number of twists and turns, the most famous and thoroughlystudied of which were the Sino-Soviet Split of 1963 and the reestablishment of relations with the United States in 1971 following President Nixon’s historic visit. Yet it is China’s relations with the countries of the Third world, especially those in South and Southeast Asia, that best captures the Chinese approach to foreign policy in the Mao era. The Chinese relationship with Third World countries primarily wavered between periods of amity based on a mutual anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist Third World solidarity, and hostile periods of either aggressive actions taken in the name of Chinese self-interest and/or Chinese support for local communist revolutionaries. These changes in the Chinese approach to the Third World during the Mao era are best understood as consequences of domestic Chinese political events, the relative status of officials within the Party bureaucracy, and local events in the Third World nations.
the changes and continuities in Chinese foreign policy. India shares a long land border and a long historical relationship with China, and accordingly the Chinese have spent much time and energy trying to maintain both. The SinoIndonesian relationship is not quite as deep, but provides a good example of Chinese behavior towards the countries in its near abroad, especially those with which it does not share a border. Accordingly, when examining the nature of Chinese foreign policy towards the Third World, this paper will use the example of these two countries and the radical changes that outside events and internal politics played in their respective relationships, touching on the Bandung Conference, the Sino-Indian border war, and the military coup which brought Suharto to power and lead to a break in diplomatic relations between China and Indonesia.
Before starting, though, one further point must be made. Perhaps the most important Third World country (from the Chinese perspective) was North Vietnam, later Vietnam. Yet this reTwo particularly important Third World coun- lationship, while of much relevance to China’s tries in the minds of the Chinese leadership dealings not only with the Third World but with were India and Indonesia. An analysis of these the two superpowers of the Cold War era (the two countries also proves useful in highlighting United States and the Soviet Union), is in most Spring 2013 | Claremont Journal of International Relations