CONTENTIONS IN SINO-SOVIET RELATIONS 1959-1973

Abstract

China and Russia are both important players in the multipolar global order. Both counties dominate the soil across Europe and Asia. Russia is the world’s largest manufacturer of oil and gas and China is the world’s largest importer of energy and the fastest growing economy, a fact that contributes to the prospects that Russia and China could be in the same level. The position of the USA, as the only world’s superpower, depends directly on the success or failure of Sino-Soviet relations. Given the nature of their relationship, this work examines the factors at play in among them in the face of growing Cold War in the world. Several factors account for the contentions in the Sino-Soviet relations 1959-1973. These inter-alia include discontents of de-Stalinization, conflicting national interests and border crisis. The paper also highlights the historical evolution of Sino-Soviet relations. The paper concluded by investigating the background relationships of the two states and revealed that antipathy existed, but not to a degree strong enough to cause such an open confrontation between the two countries. The method adopted in the study combines both descriptive and historical narrative. Qualitative research methodology was used in the re-interpretation and analysis of verifiable information collected from different sources. The approach was interdisciplinary and presentation of findings was both chronological and thematic. An analysis of the national interests of the Soviet Union and China showed a divergence of very fundamental goals, goals deeply rooted in the national interests of the two states. This divergence had arisen after the formation of the alliance and was not compatible a decade later with the demands of cooperation which the alliance prescribed. Hence, a clash of interests erupted into a dispute having immense ramification.