The Quarrelling Brothers: New Chinese Archives and a ... - CiteSeerX

e avoided.On 20 June 1959 Moscow informed Beijing that, because of the ongoing test bannegotiations with the West, it would not supply China with a prototype of the atomicbomb and related technical data. The letter arrived at a time when Chinese leaders werebogged down by a stumbling economy in the wake of the Great Leap Forward. 42Khrushchev’s move stemmed from his worry that the acquisition of nuclear weapons byChina, the perceived unreliable ally, might bring the Soviet Union unwillingly intoconfrontation with the United States. More importantly, Khrushchev feared that Sovietassistance to the Chinese nuclear program would jeopardize Moscow’s efforts to pursuedétente with the West. 43Khrushchev’s abrogation of the Soviet commitment to nuclear assistance mayhave significantly changed the Chinese leadership’s perceptions of Soviet intentions. Atan internal talk on 7 March 1959, Chen Yi still acknowledged the importance of Sovietassistance to China’s economic transformation. 44 And just about a month earlier, in a 6May interview with Soviet and socialist delegates, Mao still stressed that China shouldlearn from the Soviet Union’s experience of economic construction. 45 But Khrushchev’ssudden recission of nuclear aid led Chinese leaders to sense that the Soviet Union mightsacrifice China’s interests in order to facilitate détente with the United States, and evenstand with the United States in opposition to China. In a 23 June Politburo meeting, Mao,42 Wu Lengxi, Shinian lunzhan, p. 206; Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War, p. 228; John W. Lewisand Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, C.A.: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 64.43 Westad ed., Brothers in Arms, pp. 21-22; Griffith, The Sino-Soviet Rift, p. 12.44 “Chen Yi fuzongli zai di er ci guanguo waishi gongzuo huiyi shang de baogao” (Vice Premier Chen Yi’s Report at theSecond National Foreign Affairs Working Meeting), 7 March 1959, Juanhao 87 Zhonggong zhongyang guowuyuanguanyu di’erci quanguo waishi gongzuo huiyi wenjian, January-July 1959, Quanzong hao 3124, Quanzong mingchen:Sheng waishi bangongshi, JPA.45 “Jiejian sulian deng shiyiguo daibiaotuan he zhuhua shijie de tanhua” (The Talk [by Mao] When ReceivingDelegations to and Diplomats in China from Eleven Countries Including the Soviet Union), (6 May 1959), JMZW, vol.8, pp. 247-249.17