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Abstract
After the Sino-Soviet border clashes in 1969, Mao adjusted his foreign policy by abandoning his previous position of opposing both the United States and the Soviet Union at the same time and adopting, instead, a single-minded posture of promoting an international coalition against Moscow. Western Europe occupied an important position in Mao's strategic calculations of anti-Sovietism. During this period, Mao kept warning West European leaders against the danger of a Soviet attack and urging them to stay united and be prepared for war. This article uses the case of Sino-French relations to demonstrate Mao's persistent advocacy of an international united front against the Soviet Union. It draws on recently released Chinese and French documents to chart the course of Sino-French relations in Mao's last years and to use his French diplomacy to illuminate the misperceptions and misunderstanding in his assessment of international developments.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001); Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals, Mao’s Last Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008).
2 Qiang Zhai, “Seeking a Multipolar World: China and de Gaulle’s France,” in Christian Nuenlist, Anna Locher, and Garret Martin, eds., Globalizing de Gaulle: International Perspectives on French Foreign Policies, 1958–1969, (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010), 181–202; Qiang Zhai, “从隔阂到建交: 1949–1964年的中法关系Cong gehe dao jianjiao: 1949–1964 nian de zhongfa guanxi” (“From Estrangement to Normalization: Sino-French Relations, 1949–1964”), in中共党史研究 Zhonggong dangshi yanjiu (Studies on CCP History), no. 8. (2012):14–27, 52; Qiang Zhai, “Sino-French Normalization and Its Impact on the United States and Taiwan,” Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 30, no. 3 (Fall 2023), 235–73; Jeremi Suri, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Detente (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2003), 73–77; Garret Martin, “Playing the China Card? Revisiting France’s Recognition of Communist China, 1963–1964,” Journal of Cold War Studies, 10, no. 1 (Winter 2008), 52–80; Lorenz M Luthi, “Rearranging International Relations?: How Mao’s China and de Gaulle’s France Recognized Each Other in 1963–1964,” Journal of Cold War Studies, 16, no. 1 (Winter 2014): 111–45.
3 Qiang Zhai, “China and the French Peace Initiatives,” in Lloyd Gardner and Ted Gittinger, eds., The Search for Peace, 1964–1968, (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004), 278–91.
4 On Mao’s invocation of the Paris Commune as a model of radicalism during the Cultural Revolution, see 郑谦Zheng Qian, “‘文化大革命’的巴黎公社情结 ‘Wenhua dageming’ de Bali gongshe qingjie” (“The Paris Commune Complex during the ‘Cultural Revolution’”) in 中共党史研究Zhonggong dangshi yanjiu (Studies on CCP History), no. 2 (2010), 5–16.
5 Michael B. Yahuda, “China and Europe: The Significance of a Secondary Relationship,” in Thomas W. Robinson and David Shambaugh, eds., Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 274–77; David Shambaugh, China and Europe, 1949–1995 (London: University of London Contemporary China Institute, 1996), 12. Since the late 1960s, Strauss had advocated playing the “China card” against the Soviet Union. See Bernd Schaefer, “Ostpolitik, ‘Fernostpolitik,’ and Sino-Soviet Rivalry: China and the Two Germanys,” in Carole Fink and Bernd Schaefer, eds., Ostpolitik, 1969–1974: European and Global Responses, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 137.
6 Manac’h telegram, “Conversation with the Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs (Europe),” October 28, 1969, Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CWIHP e-Dossier No. 53, introduced by Garret J. Martin, (September 2014).
7 For a discussion of France’s approach to China during 1969–1972, see Martin Albers, “All Paths Leading to Beijing? Western Europe and Détente in East Asia, 1969–1972,” The International History Review, 37, no. 2 (2015), 219–39.
8 王泰平Wang Taiping, ed., 中华人民共和国外交史Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1970–1978 (Diplomatic History of the PRC, 1970–1978) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 1999), 311; 黎家松Li Jiasong and 廉正保Lian Zhengbao, eds., 中华人民共和国外交大事记Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji (Chronicle of PRC Diplomacy) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 2002), Vol. 3, 256.
9 Excerpt of Mao’s conversation with the French government delegation on July 13, 1970, in 中共中央文献研究室CCP Party Literature Research Office, ed., 毛泽东年谱Mao Zedong nianpu, 1949–1976 (Chronicle of Mao Zedong,1949–1976) (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2013), Vol. 6, 309–10; 中华人民共和国外交部the Foreign Ministry of the PRC and中共中央文献研究室 the CCP Party Literature Research Office, eds., 毛泽东外交文选Mao Zedong waijiao wenxuan (Diplomatic Writings of Mao Zedong) (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe and Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 1994), 589–90. See also Li Jiasong and Lian Zhengbao, eds, Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji, Vol. 3, p. 256; Wang Taiping, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1970–1978, 311.
10 Li Jiasong and Lian Zhengbao, eds., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji, vol. 3, 258; 中华人民共和国外交部外交史研究室the Diplomatic History Research Office of the PRC Foreign Ministry, ed., 周恩来外交活动大事记1949–1975 Zhou Enlai waijiao huodong dashiji, 1949–1975 (Chronicle of Zhou Enlai’s Diplomatic Activities, 1949–1975) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 1993), 559–60.
11 Li Jiasong and Lian Zhengbao, eds., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji, Vol. 3, 268–69.
12 The CCP Party Literature Research Office, ed., Mao Zedong nianpu, 1949–1976, Vol. 6, 346.
13 The Diplomatic History Research Office of the PRC Foreign Ministry, ed., Zhou Enlai waijiao huodong dashiji, 1949–1975, pp. 567–568; Li Jiasong and Lian Zhengbao, eds., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji, Vol. 3, 270–71.
14 Diary entry, December 1, 1970, C. L. Sulzberger, An Age of Mediocrity: Memoirs and Diaries, 1963–1972 (New York: Macmillan, 1973), 689–90. On Pompidou’s policy toward detente, see Georges-Henri Soutou, “President Pompidou, Ostpolitik, and the Strategy of Detente,” in Helga Haftendorn, Georges-Henri Soutou, Stephen F. Szabo, and Samuel F. Wells, Jr., eds., The Strategic Triangle: France, Germany, and the United States in the Shaping of the New Europe, (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), 229–57.
15 On Pompidou’s view of Franco-Soviet rapprochement, see Marie-Pierre Rey, “Chancellor Brandt’s Ostpolitik, France, and the Soviet Union,” in Carole Fink and Bernd Schaefer, eds., Ostpolitik, 1969–1974: European and Global Responses, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 111–25.
16 The Diplomatic History Research Office of the PRC Foreign Ministry, ed., Zhou Enlai waijiao huodong dashiji, 1949–1975, p. 637; Lian Zhengbao, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji (Chronicle of PRC Diplomacy) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 2003), Vol. 4, 32.
17 Excerpt of Mao’s talk with Maurice Schumann, July 10, 1972, in the CCP Party Literature Research Office, ed., Mao Zedong nianpu, 1949–1976, Vol. 6, 438–49; the Foreign Ministry of the PRC and the CCP Party Literature Research Office, eds., Mao Zedong waijiao wenxuan, 597; Wang Taiping, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1970–1978, 311.
18 Kurt Waldheim, In the Eye of the Storm: A Memoir (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1985), 52.
19 Memorandum of conversation, February 17–18, 1973, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1969–1976, Vol. 18: China, 1973–1976, (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2007), 126.
20 Memorandum of conversation, February 15, 1973, FRUS, 1969–1976, Vol. 18: China, 1973–1976, 30–33.
21 Memorandum of conversation, February 17–18, 1973, FRUS, 1969–1976, Vol. 18: China, 1973–1976, p. 131. See also Wang Taiping, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1970–1978, p. 7; 杨奎松Yang Kuisong, 中华人民共和国建国史研究Zhonghua renmin gongheguo jianguoshi yanjiu (Studies on the History of the PRC) (Nanchang: Jiangxi renmin chubanshe, 2009), Vol. 2, 308.
22 For further discussion of the Nixon administration’s conceptualization of detente, see John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War, revised and expanded edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 286–302.
23 Wang Taiping, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1970–1978, 312.
24 曾涛 Zeng Tao, 外交生涯十七年Waijiao shengya shiqinian (My Seventeen-Year Career as a Diplomat) (Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1997), 185–86. (Zeng Tao served as China’s ambassador to France from 1973 to 1977. He accompanied Ji Pengfei during his visit in France.)
25 Excerpt of Mao’s talk with Pompidou, September 12, 1972, in the CCP Party Literature Research Office, ed., Mao Zedong nianpu, 1949–1976, Vol. 6, pp. 498–499; Lian Zhengbao, ed, Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji, Vol. 4, pp. 94–95; Wang Taiping, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1970–1978, pp. 311–312; Zeng Tao, Waijiao shengya shiqinian, 189.
26 Wang Taiping, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1970–1978, 312; The Diplomatic History Research Office of the PRC Foreign Ministry, ed., Zhou Enlai waijiao huodong dashiji, 1949–1975, 685–86; 蔡方柏Cai Fangbai, “蓬皮杜总统身患绝症坚持访华” (“President Pompidou’s Visit to China despite Being Terminally Sick”), in 刘新生Liu Xinsheng and 赵国明Zhao Guoming, eds., 外交官历史亲历记Waijiaoguan lishi qinli ji (Historical Recollections of Diplomats) (Beijing: Jiuzhou chubanshe, 2013), 44. (Cai Fangbai was a French-language interpreter in the Chinese embassy in Paris at the time. He served as a rapporteur of the Zhou- Pompidou conversations in Beijing.)
27 Zeng Tao, Waijiao shengya shiqinian, 191.
28 Schaefer, “Ostpolitik, ‘Fernostpolitik,’ and Sino-Soviet Rivalry,” 143.
29 Ezra F. Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011), 78–79.
30 Wang Taiping, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1970–1978, 7; Yang Kuisong, Zhonghua renmin gongheguo jianguoshi yanjiu, Vol. 2, 308.
31 中华人民共和国外交部档案馆The PRC Foreign Ministry Archives, ed., 伟人的足迹: 邓小平外交活动大事记Weiren de zuji: Deng Xiaoping waijiao huodong dashiji (The Footprints of a Great Man: A Chronicle of Deng Xiaoping’s Diplomatic Activities) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 1998), 84–85; Lian Zhengbao, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji, Vol. 4, 121–22.
32 Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, 83–87.
33 On the making of China’s Third World identity, see Samuel S. Kim and Lowell Dittmer, eds., China’s Quest for National Identity (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993). The Albanians criticized the “Three Worlds” doctrine as anti-revolutionary and a betrayal of the teachings of Marxism-Leninism. Samuel S. Kim, China In and Out of the Changing World Order (World Order Studies Program Occasional Paper, No. 21, Center of International Studies, Princeton University, 1991), 55.
34 The PRC Foreign Ministry Archives, ed., Weiren de zuji, 87; Lian Zhengbao, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji, Vol. 4, 124.
35 Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, 118–19.
36 “Record of Conversation between Jacques Chirac and Deng Xiaoping,” May 12, 1975, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, la Courneuve (MAE), Série Asie-Océanie, Sous-série Chine 1973–1980 (AO), 2174, in CWIHP e-Dossier No. 45. For a Chinese excerpt of this conversation, see the PRC Foreign Ministry Archives, ed., Weiren de zuji, 128–29.
37 “Record of Conversation between Giscard d'Estaing and Deng Xiaoping: First Meeting,” May 13, 1975, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, la Courneuve (MAE), Série Asie-Océanie, Sous-série Chine 1973–1980 (AO), 2174. Obtained and translated for CWIHP by Martin Albers and included in CWIHP e-Dossier No. 45. For a Chinese excerpt of this conversation, see the PRC Foreign Ministry Archives, ed., Weiren de zuji, 129.
38 “Record of Conversation between Giscard d'Estaing and Deng Xiaoping: Second Meeting,” May 14, 1975, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, la Courneuve (MAE), Série Asie-Océanie, Sous-série Chine 1973–1980 (AO), 2174. Obtained and translated for CWIHP by Martin Albers and included in CWIHP e-Dossier No. 45. For a Chinese excerpt of this conversation, see the PRC Foreign Ministry Archives, ed., Weiren de zuji, 130.
39 Arnaud to the French Foreign Ministry on May 6, 1975, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, la Courneuve (MAE), Série Asie-Océanie, Sous-série Chine 1973–1980 (AO), 2174, in CWIHP e-Dossier No. 45. On Deng Xiaoping’s meeting with Princess Ashraf Pavlavi, see the PRC Foreign Ministry Archives, ed., Weiren de zuji, 132.
40 The PRC Foreign Ministry Archives, ed., Weiren de zuji, p. 119; Lian Zhengbao, ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiao dashiji, Vol. 4, 176–77.
41 On the Helsinki institutionalization of human rights ideas as formal international norms designed to govern the policies and structures of sovereign states, see Daniel C. Thomas, The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights, and the Demise of Communism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001). On how a transnational network of human rights activists influenced both Western and Eastern governments to pursue policies that eventually led to the emergence of organized dissent in Eastern Europe, freedom of movement for East Germans, and improved human rights practices in the Soviet Union—all factors in the end of the Cold War, see Sarah B. Snyder, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
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Qiang Zhai
Qiang Zhai is professor of history at Auburn University at Montgomery. He is the author of The Dragon, the Lion, and the Eagle: Chinese-British-American Relations, 1949–1958 (Kent State University Press, 1994) and China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975 (University of North Carolina Press, 2000). He has also published articles in scholarly journals such as The Journal of Military History, The China Quarterly, The Journal of Cold War Studies, The Journal of American-East-Asian Relations, and the Pacific Historical Review