Choose a factor and see how it shaped China's relations with each superpower.
Which factor best explains the changes in China's relations with the USSR and USA?
Security interests
- The 1969 clash made the USSR China's main threat.
- Taiwan kept China and the USA apart for two decades.
Security explains both the break with Moscow and the opening to Washington.
Security fears do not explain the bitterness of the ideological polemics.
Ideology
- Mao rejected de-Stalinisation and coexistence.
- China saw the USA as the leading imperialist.
Ideology explains early hostility to the USA and the form of the split with Moscow.
China opened to the capitalist USA in the 1970s despite ideology.
Superpower relations
- Soviet-American coexistence alarmed Mao.
- Nixon's triangular diplomacy courted China.
China's relations depended on how the superpowers related to each other.
China also acted on its own interests and was not just a pawn.