The PRC — foreign policy and the Deng transformation

Answer

Mao feared a US/UN victory would put a hostile power on China's border and threaten the new communist state, especially once UN forces crossed the 38th parallel and neared the Yalu River. Around 3 million 'People's Volunteers' fought under Peng Dehuai.

Answer

The line of latitude that divided North and South Korea before, during, and (as the DMZ) after the Korean War.

Answer

The 1953 Armistice restored roughly the pre-war border near the 38th parallel. China's intervention was hugely significant: it fought the world's most powerful military to a standstill, proved the new PRC could defend itself, but cost 400,000+ Chinese casualties and hardened US containment of China for two decades.

Answer

The breakdown of the China-USSR alliance from the late 1950s over ideology, leadership, and national interest, turning two communist giants into rivals.

Answer

1) Khrushchev's 1956 'de-Stalinization' speech, which Mao saw as a betrayal of revolutionary struggle. 2) Mao's anger at the USSR withdrawing aid/advisers (1960) and refusing to share nuclear technology. 3) A border dispute erupting in armed clashes at the Ussuri River (1969), plus rival claims to leadership of world communism.

Answer

The surprise invitation of the US table tennis team to China in April 1971, used as a low-risk public signal that both countries were ready to talk after 20 years of hostility.

Answer

Both wanted to use each other against the USSR (triangular diplomacy): Nixon wanted leverage over Moscow and an exit from Vietnam; Mao, after the Ussuri clashes, wanted a counterweight to a hostile Soviet Union on his border. The result was the Shanghai Communiqué, acknowledging 'One China' while leaving Taiwan's status unresolved.

Answer

Mao died in September 1976. The radical 'Gang of Four' were arrested within a month. Deng, twice purged during the Cultural Revolution, was rehabilitated and outmanoeuvred Mao's chosen successor Hua Guofeng, becoming China's paramount leader by December 1978 without ever holding the top state or party title.

Answer

Four radical Cultural Revolution leaders (including Mao's wife Jiang Qing) blamed for its excesses and arrested weeks after Mao's death.

Answer

The Third Plenum (December 1978) shifted the party's focus from 'class struggle' to economic modernization. The 1981 Party 'Resolution on History' judged Mao '70% right, 30% wrong', formally closing the Cultural Revolution era while keeping Mao as a legitimizing symbol.

Answer

Students and workers gathered from April 1989 (sparked by the death of reformist leader Hu Yaobang) to demand anti-corruption measures and political reform, amid inflation and frustration that economic opening hadn't brought political change. On 3-4 June, Deng ordered the army to clear the square by force; hundreds to thousands were killed.

Answer

Deng built collective leadership and fixed term limits partly to prevent another Mao-style personality cult. Xi has reversed this: removing presidential term limits (2018), enshrining 'Xi Jinping Thought' in the constitution, and centralizing power through anti-corruption campaigns and tighter party control.

Answer

This is a live historical debate: Deng rejected Mao's economics (radical collectivization, Cultural Revolution chaos) but preserved Mao's core principle of one-party political control, shown clearly by the Tiananmen crackdown — reform without democratization.