The Implementation of the Sino-U.S. Ambassadorial Talks against the Background of the Geneva Summit 1955: PRC’s Diplomatic Achievements with the Help of the Soviet Union

Abstract

This article uses the newly declassified archives of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, some other Chinese archival materials and some declassified archives of the United States to reexamine the process of implementing Sino-US ambassadorial talks and analyze the links between these talks and the four-power Geneva Summit in 1955, with particular attention dedicated to the mutual cooperation and mutual support between China and Soviet Union. In contrast to previous scholarship, this article believes that the Soviet Union exercised a more important role in the process of implementation of the Sino-US ambassadorial talks. This process was a perfect example of the “honeymoon” period of the Sino-Soviet relationship in the mid1950s. This article also discovers that some of the first cracks in the Sino-Soviet relationship also appeared during the golden years of the Sino-Soviet alliance.

Keywords

• Geneva Summit
• Geneva spirit
• Sino-US ambassadorial talks
• Sino-Soviet relations