| The Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s was an earthquake in Cold War international politics. This study, taking advantage of newly available materials, explores the sources of the rupture from a fresh perspective. The central argument is that the Beijing-Moscow fissure and confrontations were closely related to Mao's intention of using Sino-Soviet ideological differences for his domestic political purposes, including pushing for his radical domestic agenda, steering China towards an ideological path of his own visions, and striking down political power challenges.; In the first half of 1958, Mao tried hard to diminish Soviet influence in China in order to launch the Great Leap Forward program, which contributed to the emergence of disputes with the Soviets, apparently on the Soviet proposals of military cooperation. The catastrophic failure of the Great Leap produced significant political challenges in the CCP leadership against Mao. Khrushchev and his cohorts also openly disagreed with and criticized Mao's domestic radicalism. An enraged Mao declared a political war against his opponents at home and abroad, which drastically shook the foundation of Sino-Soviet alliance in 1959 and 1960. The retreat policies adopted by other leaders in the aftermath of the disastrous Great Leap were soon accused by Mao as ill-designed moves to lead China to a revisionist road as Khrushchev had done in his country. Starting from the end of 1962, Mao began to initiate massive political campaigns to prevent revisionism from happening in China. Opposing the Soviet revisionism became an integral part of Mao's grand scheme of exterminating sources of revisionism in China. During the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese media systematically demonized the Soviet leadership and Sino-Soviet relations reached open hostility and even military confrontations.; This dissertation also advances a domestic-international interaction model and relates the empirical findings to the theoretical debate in the study of International Relations, particularly in the area of ideology and foreign policy. |
