The Sino-Soviet Border Clash of 1969: From Zhenbao Island to Sino-American Rapprochement

Cold War History

Volumn 1, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 21-52

  Kuisong, Yang ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34248093255     PISSN: 14682745     EISSN: 17437962     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/713999906     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Among recent scholarship on this issue, the most notable include former Chinese diplomat Xiong Xianghui's memoir, 'Prelude to the Sino-American Rapprochement', Zhonggong dangshi ziliao [CCP History Materials], 42 (1992), pp.56-96;
2. S. Goncharov and V. Usov, 'Introduction' to former Soviet minister to China A. Ielizavetin, 'Conversations between Kosygin and Zhou Enlai at the Beijing Airport', Problemy Dalnego Vostoka [Far Eastern Affairs] 5 (1992), pp.39-63;
3. Xu Yan, 'The Sino-Soviet Border Clash of 1969', Dangshi yanjiu ziliao [Party History Research Materials] 5 (1994), pp.2-13;
4. Li Danhui, 'The Sino-Soviet Border Clash of 1969: Origins and Consequences', Dangdai zhongguoshi yanjiu [Contemporary Chinese History Studies] 5 (1996), pp.39-50.
5. On the Cultural Revolution, see Jin Chunming and Xi Xuan, Wenhua dageming jianshi [A Concise History of the Cultural Revolution] (Beijing: Zhonggong Dangshi, 1996);
6. Wang Nianyi, Dadongluan de niandai [The Years of Great Chaos] (Zhengzhou: Henan renmin, 1991);
7. Barbara Barnouin and Yu Changgen, Ten Years of Turbulence: The Chinese Cultural Revolution (London and New York: Graduate Institute of International Studies, Kegan Paul International, 1993).
8. Jin and Xi, Wenhua dageming jianshi, p.209.
9. See, for example, Chen Jian and Yang Kuisong, 'Chinese Politics and the Collapse of the Sino-Soviet Alliance', in Odd Arne Westad (ed.), Brothers in Arms: The Rise and Fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1945-1963 (Washington, DC and Stanford, CA: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press, 1998), pp.272-7.
10. See 'Statement by the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Sino-Soviet Border Issue', Renmin ribao [The People's Daily], 25 May 1969.
11. Minute, 'Mao Zedong's Conversations with Sasaki, Kuroda, and other Middle-Leftist members of the Japanese Socialist Party', 10 July 1964. The original of this document is kept at the Chinese Central Archives in Beijing, hereafter cited as CCA.
12. Minutes, 'Mao Zedong's Conversations with the Director of French Technology Exhibition in Beijing and the French Ambassador to China', 10 Sept. 1964, CCA.
13. Minutes, 'Mao Zedong's Conversations with Choi Yong Kun', 7 Oct. 1964, CCA (Choi Yong Kun was North Korea's number two leader at that time);
14. minutes, 'Mao Zedong's Conversations with Beqir Balluku', 9 Oct. 1964
15. see minutes, 'Mao Zedong's Conversations with the Delegation of the Indonesian Communist Party', 4 July 1966, CCA.
16. For discussions on the 'Third Front', see Barry Naughton, 'The Third Front: Defense Industrialization in the Chinese Interior', The China Quarterly 115 (Sept. 1988), pp.351-86.
17. Ielizavetin, 'Conversations between Kosygin and Zhou Enlai at the Beijing Airport', pp.41-2.
18. Xu, 'The Sino-Soviet Border Clash of 1969', pp.4-5.
19. The People's Liberation Army Chief of Staff (comp.), Zhenbaodao ziwei fanjii zuozhan jieshao cailiao [Introduction Materials about the Combat for Self-Defense and Repulsing the Enemy at the Zhenbao Island], distributed to CCP top-level cadre in 1969.
20. Li, 'The Sino-Soviet Border Clash of 1969: Origins and Consequences', pp.46-7.
21. PLA Chief of Staff (comp.), Zhenbaodao ziwei fanjii zuozhan jieshao cailiao;
22. Yan, 'The Sino-Soviet Border Clash of 1969', p.6.
23. see also minute, 'Mao Zedong's Talks at a Meeting of the Cultural Revolution Group', 15 March 1969, CCA.
24. Wang Yongqin, 'A Chronicle of Events in Sino-American-Soviet Relations', Dangdai zhongguo shi yanjiu 4 (1997), p.119.
25. Minutes, 'Mao Zedong's Speech at the First Plenary Session of the CCP's Ninth Central Committee', 28 April 1969, Cold War International History Project [CWIHP] Bulletin 11, pp.163-5.
26. Christian F. Ostermann, 'East German Documents on the Border Conflict, 1969', CWIHP Bulletin 6-7 (Winter 1995-96), pp.186-91.
27. Ielizavetin, 'Conversations between Kosygin and Zhou Enlai at the Beijing Airport', p.62, n.12.
28. Arkady Shevchenko, Yu Mosike Juelie [Breaking with Moscow] (Beijing: Shijie zhishi, 1986), pp.194-5;
29. Ostermann, 'East German Documents on the Border Conflict, 1969', p.187.
30. Ielizevetin, 'Conversations between Kosygin and Zhou Enlai at the Beijing Airport', p.49.
31. Li Ping et al., Zhou Enlai nianpu, 1949-1976 [A Chronicle of Zhou Enlai, 1949-1976] (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian, 1997), Vol.2, p.286.
32. See Provda, 29 March 1969.
33. Renmin ribao, 25 May 1969.
34. Shevchenko, Yu Mosike Juelie, pp.194-5.
35. Komsomolskaia Pravda, 15 Feb. 1992.
36. Henry Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), p.183.
37. Pravda, 28 Aug. 1969.
38. Zheng Qian, 'The War Preparations in the Whole Country around the CCP's Ninth Congress', Zhonggong dangshi ziliao 41 (1992), p.211.
39. During the CCP's Ninth Congress, Mao, while addressing a brief meeting of the Cultural Revolution Group, mentioned that he hoped the marshals would provide their advice on issues related to the international situation and national defence. However, when commenting on the marshals' activities at the First Plenary Session of the CCP's Ninth Central Committee on 28 April, Mao did not touch upon their study of the international situation. Instead, he asked them to go down to the factories to see whether or not political power there had been seized by true Marxists. CWIHP Bulletin 11 (1998), pp.163-5;
40. Wang, 'A Chronicle of Events in Sino-American-Soviet Relations', pp.120-21.
41. Li et al., Zhou Enlai nianpu, 1949-1976, Vol.3, p.301;
42. Xiong, 'Prelude to the Sino-American Rapprochement', pp.61-2.
43. Zheng, 'The War Preparations in the Whole Country around the CCP's Ninth Congress', pp.212-13.
44. The CCP Central Committee and the Administrative Group of the CMC, 'Report on Measures Needed to Be Taken to Enhance Air Defense', 27 Aug. 1969, CCA.
45. Wang Youping riji [Wang Youping's Diary, unpublished manuscript]. Wang Youping was Chinese ambassador to Hanoi at that time.
46. Jin et al., Zhou Enlai zhuan, 1949-1976, pp.1,083-4;
47. Qian, 'The War Preparations in the Whole Country around the CCP's Ninth Congress', pp.219-20.
48. Zhonggong dangshi dashi nianbiao [A Chronicle of Important Events in CCP History] (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi, 1987), p.327.
49. Li Ke and Hao Shengzhang, Wenhua dageming zhong de renmin jiefangjun [The People's Liberation Army in the Cultural Revolution] (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi ziliao, 1989), pp.124-5.
50. 'CCP Central Committee's Order for General Mobilization in Border Provinces and Regions';
51. Minute, 'Mao Zedong's Talks at the Meeting of The Central Cultural Revolution Group', 22 March 1969, CCA.
52. Zhou specifically defined the tasks for the marshals as: (1) to stay at a selected grassroots unit to help improve its work and gain firsthand experience for guiding the work in the whole country; (2) to discuss international questions; and (3) to assess issues related to national defence. The marshals would go to the grassroots units three days a week, read materials on international situation during the rest of the week, and discuss international issues three times a month. See Xianghui, 'Prelude to the Sino-American Rapprochement', pp.60-61.
53. Report by Four Marshals - Chen Yi, Ye Jianyin, Nie Rongzhen, and Xu Xiangqian - to the CCP Central Committee, 'A Preliminary Evaluation of the War Situation' (excerpt), 11 July 1969, CWIHP Bulletin 11 (1998), pp.166-8.
54. Kissinger, White House Years, pp.180-81.
55. Wu Xujun, 'What Mao Zedogn Had in His Mind', Mian huai Mao Zedong [Cherish the Memory of Mao Zedong] (Beijing: Zhongyang Wenxian, 1993), pp.644-5.