Revista de Știinţe Politice şi Relaţii Internaţionale (Jun 2023)
PRIMA VIZITĂ A LUI MAO ZEDUNG LA MOSCOVA (1949-1950)
Abstract
Mao’s first trip to Moscow (December 1949 – February 1950) was an important step in the Sino-Soviet relations. The Beijing leader intended by his visit to obtain from Stalin a strategic alliance with the Soviet Union, perceived at that time as China’s only potential powerful ally. Although Stalin was not initially interested in concluding an alliance with the New China, mainly because he feared losing the strategic advantages he had obtained for the Soviet Union at Yalta, he eventually agreed with the signing of a Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance (signed on February 14, 1950), due to changes in the international context and especially due to the clarification of the United States’ new Asia policy, but also to Mao’s own manoeuvring in that direction. By this Treaty and its additional agreements, the PRC obtained from the Soviets major concessions, both strategic and economic, as the guaranteing of China’s security against the perceived US’ aggressiveness, important economic aid for the country’s reconstruction and the drastic and immediate diminishing of Soviet special privileges in Manchuria. Despite this, the lack of confidence between Mao Zedong and Stalin did nothing but grow during the visit, which eventually contributed, after a few years of rapprochement, to the later Sino-Soviet split.
