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

assess Mao’s challenge against the backdrop of his own political experience. 102Mao, however, had his own rationale. He had come to believe that the Sovietleadership’s misunderstanding of a series of theoretical issues was at the root of theproblems in Sino-Soviet relations. Therefore, Mao decided to shift the focus of debateswith Moscow from specific issues such as the Sino-Indian border conflict and policytowards the United States, to theoretical views of Leninism. 103 Indeed, Mao still did notwant to push Sino-Soviet disputes to an extreme. He had pointed out that Khrushchevwas “prone to change” and believed that through “necessary struggles” Soviet leadersmight be pulled in a positive direction. Mao believed that the three articles, which he hadpersonally reviewed and edited, had been quite reserved about Khrushchev. The articlesimplicitly noted that Khrushchev and Soviet leaders “are not revisionists,” calling them“people with good intentions” who merely had many “incorrect thoughts.” 104 Chinesesources also seem to suggest that to “reach top status” in the world revolutionarymovement was not yet Mao’s priority. Actually, new Chinese archives show that it wasnot until late 1962, that China came to believe that Khrushchev had become a fullfledgedrevisionist, that the Chinese began to argue that China should “compete withrevisionism for leadership in international struggles.” 105In 1960, another major development in international politics occurred, and Sovietmisperceptions of Beijing’s intentions might have further deepened mistrust of theChinese. On 1 May, eight days after China published the three articles on Leninism, an102 Zubok, “The Mao-Khrushchev Conversations,” p. 248.103 Yang Kuisong, Mao Zedong yu mosike, p. 449.104 Ibid., pp. 448-449.105 Item No. 2 “Guowuyuan waiban: diliuci quanguo waishi huiyi chuanda yaodian,” 17 December 1962, Juanhao 145Guowuyuan waiban diliuci quanguo waishi gongzuo huiyi (The State Council Foreign Affairs Office’s Sixth NationalForeign Affairs Working Meeting) (July-November, 1962), Quanzong hao 3124, Quanzong mingchen: Sheng waishibangongshi, JPA.33