Yafeng Xia 161 Union,but he had no aptitude for learning foreign languages.He tried 8 to learn Russia,but with little progress.He went to neither France nor Russia.3 During the rest of his life,Mao attempted to learn English- Mao Zedong even during the very difficult war years in Yan'an.He picked up English again in 1954 and continued for about ten years.According to his pollt- Yafeng Xia ical secretary Lin Ke,in his later life,Mao was able to read English articles with an English-Chinese dictionary,but could speak only a few English words.His knowledge of the outside world was from his voracious reading of a wide range of newspapers-Communist,Nation- alist and from Hong Kong-translated abstracts of all types of news, reports and cables from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,reports from the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)Central Committee,civilian and military intelligence agencies, Mao Zedong was born in 1893 into a peasant family in a valley called and from his talks with foreign visitors. Shaoshan,in the province of Hunan,in the heartland of China.In 1910, But Mao developed a true love for maps.As a military strategist,maps Mao entered Dongshan Advanced Elementary School,in neighbouring accompanied Mao throughout his life.During the war years from 1927 Xiangxiang County.It was during his time at Dongshan School that to 1949,Mao ordered his troops to explore and examine the geograph- Mao was first exposed to a wide world of contemporary events.He was ical situation wherever they were.After becoming paramount leader of very interested in history and read widely on Chinese and world his. the People's Republic of China (PRC),Mao's love for maps continued. tory and geography.He read a book called Great Heroes of the World He always had Chinese and world maps around when he was in office, and learned a maze of new names-such as Napoleon,Catherine the travelling or reading.s Great,Wellington,Gladstone,Rousseau,Montesquieu,Washington and Although adopting a communist ideology,Mao and his comrades Lincoln-and their accomplishments.! were determined to rid their country of all the 'national humiliations' Mao was enrolled in No.1 Provincial High School in 1912 in since the 1840s and to restore China to its rightful place in the world Changsha,the provincial capital.Early in October 1911,the Qing of nations.As the historian Chen Jian put it,'Mao's revolutionary dynasty,which had ruled China since 1644 finally collapsed after a programs aimed at reviving China's central position in the world.'6 massive military mutiny in Wuhan,not far from Changsha.The Repub- Experienced in Chinese domestic struggle with the Natlonalists and war- lic of China was founded in 1912.But China's trouble and disorder lords for many years of civil war,Mao vlewed the world through the lens were far from over.In the fall of 1912,Mao conducted an intensive of class struggle.He considered the Chinese revolution as part of the period of private study at the Hunan Provincial Library.Mao had his world proletariat revolution.The foremost thing in international strug- first glimpse of a map of the world hanging on the wall of the library's gle was to identify friends from foes and form a united front against hall.He established a rigorous reading schedule and read widely.Among enemies.The so-called united front strategy in essence is one of Maoist Western social science,he read the Chinese translation of The Wealth class struggle'tactics to solve the problem. of Nations by Adam Smith,On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, Logic by Herbert Spencer and others.2 Like many Chinese youths of his 'Intermediate zone'theory-to form an anti-American generation,Mao longed to be a hero in China's salvation. united front It was common for young Chinese to go abroad to study in the early twentieth century.Many future Chinese communist leaders went to Early in 1946,in anticipation of a possible confrontation between the France,such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping,and to the Soviet Union, United States and the Soviet Union,Mao Zedong proposed his theory such as Liu Shaoqi,Wang Jlaxiang and Zhang Wentian.Many of Mao's of the'intermediate zone',stressing that there was a large intermediate friends went to France.In 1920,Mao thought of going to the Soviet zone in addition to the two opposing superpowers-the United States 160
162 Mao Zedong Yafeng Xia 163 and the Soviet Union.In an interview with Anna Louise Strong,a left '..the principal contradictions in today's world are those between the wing American journalist on 6 August 1946,Mao put two large tea cups American people and the American reactionaries,between Britain and on the table to represent the 'US imperialist'and the Soviet Union.Mao the United States,and between China and the United States.'2 As the said the 'US imperialist'wanted war while the Soviet Union opposed historian Michael Sheng has noted,'The essential message conveyed war.He then placed several smaller wine cups encircling the large 'US tea in Mao's intermediate-zone theory was the determination to fight U.S. cup',stating they represented the American people and were opposed to war.?Mao told Strong, imperialism and its "running dog"-the Nationalist government in China,and the formation of an anti-American united front at home and abroad. To start a war,the U.S.reactionaries must first attack the American people.They are already attacking the American people-oppressing the workers and democratic circles in the United States politically and China's place in the US-Soviet Cold War economically and preparing to impose fascism there.The people of After the beginning of the US-Soviet Cold War confrontation and the the United States should stand up and resist the attacks of the U.S. emergence of the two opposing blocs,China adopted the 'lean-to-one- reactionaries....B side'(the side of the Soviet Union)foreign policy and was in the socialist bloc after the success of the Chinese Communist revolution Mao further explained to Strong that if the US reactionaries could sub- in 1949.Mao and the CCP leaders 'immediately proclaimed that rev- due domestic opposition,they would then have to deal with European olutionary China,as a natural ally of the "oppressed peoples"in the capitalist countries.To elaborate his point,Mao placed several smaller intermediate zone,would hold high the banner of anti-imperialism and tea cups,a matchbox and an ashtray in between the two cups represent- anti-colonialism,challenging the United States and other Western impe- ing the United States and the USSR.He explained that the US imperial- rialist/colonial powers'.14 The Truman administration settled on a policy ists could not directly attack the Soviet Union until they had managed of non-recognition of the PRC.As the United States had supported the to control the 'intermediate zone',including China.Mao said,'Here are many capitalist countries and colonial and semi-colonial countries in Chinese Nationalists during the civil war,and Washington refused to cut off relations with the Nationalist government in Taiwan,the CCP Europe,Asia and Latin America.It is impossible for the U.S.reactionar- regarded the United States as a serious threat to the PRC. ies to attack the Soviet Union before it is able to bring these countries In 1949,when the PRC was founded,Mao travelled to Moscow to to their knees."Chen Jian argues that the 'intermediate zone'theory seek a political and military alliance with the Soviet Union.In April 'revealed a powerful tendency toward Chinese ethnocentrism in Mao's 1950,about one month after returning from his trip,in a speech to the and the other CCP leaders'definition of the post-war world situation'. sixth session of the Central People's Government Council,Mao further In Chen's words,'Mao and his comrades contended that whether or claimed that the victory of the Chinese revolution had 'defeated one not the United States would be able to control the intermediate zone enemy,the reactionary forces at home'.But,the chairman reminded his would be determined by the result of the struggles between China and the United States.'0 comrades,'there are still reactionaries in the world,that is,the imperi- alists outside China.'Therefore,China needed friends.With the making Mao viewed the world democratic forces as consisting of three parts: of the Sino-Soviet alliance,Mao emphasized,China's external position the people in the United States,in other capitalist countries,and in colonial and semi-colonial countries.The Soviet Union was the pillar had been strengthened.Mao further declared,'If the imperialists pre- pare to attack us,we already have help.'"s To Mao,it seemed that the of these world democratic forces.In early 1947,Lu Dingyi,the head alliance was a realistic choice he could make in a world of fierce struggle of CCP's propaganda,elaborated on Mao's 'intermediate zone'concept between socialist and capitalist camps. in an important article,published in Renmin ribao,the CCP's mouth- Prior to the founding of the PRC,in late June to August 1949,Liu piece.Lu argued that the post-war confrontation on the world scene Shaoqi,the CCP's second in command,led a high-ranking delega- was between the 'anti democratic force'headed by Washington and the peace-loving and democratic forces'headed by Moscow.Lu stressed, tion to Moscow to prepare for Mao's summit with the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.At one point,Stalin mentioned that 'the centre of the
164 Mao Zedong Yafeng Xia 165 world]revolution has moved from the West to the East,and has now prelude to Sino-American ambassadorial talks,which lasted from 1955 moved to China.'6 Stalin proposed that in the international revolu- to 1970,first in Geneva and then in Warsaw.The PRC then undertook a tionary movement,China and the Soviet Union should each accept conciliatory position by showing willingness to unilaterally release some responsibilities and that there should be a cooperative division of labour detained Americans and to discuss less controversial issues,such as the between them.He hoped that China would take more responsibility for US economic embargo against China and a ban on cultural exchanges. assisting national democratic revolutionary movements in colonial and Subsequently,Beijing expected to draw Washington into serious discus- semi-colonial countries,since the Chinese revolution itself and China's sions over significant issues,including recognizing the PRC's legitimacv revolutionary experience would exercise great influence,and could be resolving the Taiwan issue,and acknowledging China's rightful place in studied and assimilated by these movements.Stalin stated, world affairs.From mid-1956,faced with an uncompromising US atti- tude on substantive issues,the Chinese leaders lost interest in improving Therefore,in the interest of world revolution,let our two countries relations through secret negotiations.Nonetheless,they still maintained divide our labour:You do more work in the East and among colonial this communication channel with the United States.Beijing's use of the and semi-colonial countries,working by way of your positive role suspension of the talks as an excuse to launch the Second Taiwan Straits and influence.We will take on more duties and do more work in the crisis in 1958 did bring the United States back to the negotiating table, West. but failed to change the US negotiating position.20 In launching the 'Great Leap Forward'in 1958,Mao announced that Mao was doubtless elated and confirmed in his belief in the applicability Chinese diplomacy should cast off conservative thinking.Early in the and universality of the Chinese Communist revolutionary experience year,Mao told Marshal Chen Yi,who would soon replace moderate of a violent revolution to seize political power.This might also explain Zhou Enlai as China's new foreign minister,that he had instructed why,against all the dissenting voices from his comrades,Mao decided Chinese diplomats to make contact with American officials during the in the autumn of 1950 to send poorly equipped Chinese People's Geneva Conference.This instruction,however,had not been consis- Volunteers to fight the modern American army in Korea. tent with his usual line of thinking.Now,Mao said,it appeared that After the Korean War,Mao picked up the intermediate zone concept his usual line of thinking had proved to be superior:China should vig- again.Speaking at a CCP Central Committee Politburo enlarged meet- orously struggle against American policies with no attempt to develop ing on 7 July 1954,Mao said,The main purpose of the United States is relations with the US government.21 Chinese policy towards the United to punish the intermediate zone,including the entire area from Japan States should demonstrate that the Chinese people had truly stood up, to Britain,and to make these countries cry.'18 Mao envisioned the entire and the Chinese people would not forget the long history of imperialist area excluding both the United States and the Soviet Union as a possible invasion of China.He further argued that China should take advan- anti-American ally.In a meeting with a visiting delegation of the British tage of US policies of political containment and economic embargo to Labour Party on 24 August 1954,Mao contended that the so-called anti- close its doors and concentrate on self-reliant socialist development.22 communism was not to be taken at face value.Mao opined,'In my view, At an extended Politburo meeting on 16 June 1958,which focused on the United States is making use of anti-communism to serve its other discussing foreign policy,Mao said, purpose-first of all,to occupy the intermediate zone stretching from Japan to Britain.'Mao claimed that the aim of the United States was to I said it was all right to make contact with the American during the occupy those countries in this vast intermediate zone,to bully them, Geneva Conference.In actuality,the Americans were not necessarily to control their economies,to establish military bases on their terri- willing to deal with us.It is to our advantage to be in an impasse with tory.The United States attempted to weaken these countries,including the United States....The United States would have to recognize us in Japan and Germany.Now Mao included Western capitalist countries 101 years.23 and newly independent Afro-Asian nations in the intermediate zone. During the Geneva Conference of 1954,Mao hoped to improve rela- It seemed that Mao was agitated about US policy and decided to take tions with the United States through serious negotiations.This was the the offensive.It was then that Mao resurrected the concept of an
166 Mao Zedong Yafeng Xia 167 'intermediate zone'between the United States and the Soviet Union. independent governments in Africa and Asia,urging them to reject the At the fifteenth Conference of Supreme State Affairs,on 8 September, West.26 Mao claimed that the United States wanted to control four continents: After the fallout of relations with the Soviet Union in the early Latin America,Europe,Africa and Asia.The United States dared not 1960s,China competed for the leadership role with the Soviets in the attack the Soviet Union unless the Soviet Union and China collapsed.24 world revolutionary movement.At a foreign affairs working confer- This was his rationale for continuing the Soviet alliance. ence on 13 November 1962,the Chinese foreign minister,Chen Yi, In the first half of the 1950s,the Sino-Soviet relationship was cor- told his audience,'In today's world,only our Chairman Mao is able dial and the top priority of the PRC's diplomacy.The contacts between to develop Marxism-Leninism.The practice of Chinese revolution fully the two governments were frequent,and bilateral negotiations were proves this.[The Soviet]revisionists could not match our Chairman.' often conducted between top leaders.After Stalin's death,the personal Chen declaimed,'The centre of world revolution has moved to our charisma of the new Soviet leaders was not sufficient to entice and country.'He further claimed that the struggle of world revolutionary lead the international communist movement.The twentieth Congress people with revisionism should be guided not only by Marxism,but of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union(CPSU)in February 1956 Mao Zedong Thought as well.7 But Mao's aspiration to become the leader supported a policy of peaceful coexistence between capitalism and of the third force,replacing the Soviet Union as the leader of world rev- socialism.After the twentieth Congress,Mao became concerned about olution,to struggle agalnst imperialists(the United States),revisionists the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's political views and experiences, (the USSR)and reactionaries(India and Japan),had made little headway believing that the CCP should assert itself to ensure the stability of by the late 1960s. the international communist movement.He cast serious doubt on To stimulate and to lead the revolution of world people,especially Khrushchev's ability to lead the international communist movement people in the Third World countries,remained Mao's final goal and after the outbreak of the Polish-Hungarian crises in October 1956.Mao ideal.When Mao stepped up his left-turn in China's foreign policy in began to regard himself as the potential leader of the sociallst bloc and 1962,he was more active in leading world revolutionary movements. Khrushchev as a transitional figure,25 The Chinese actively supported leftists-Maoists in the international In the 1960s,although Washington believed that the Soviet threat communist movement in an attempt to divide the world into three was still the predominant one,the Third World became a major battle- parts:imperialists headed by the United States,revisionists headed by ground between the great powers.The rise of nationalism as a result of the Soviet Union and Marxists headed by China.The Chinese actively communist infiltration seemed to pose an increasing challenge to the promoted Mao as the leader of world revolution,claiming "Those United States and the Free World'.It was within this area that China who want revolution should come to Beijing...Mao Zedong Thought stood out as the world's leading revolutionary state,threatening not has become the centre of unity for all Marx-Leninists and ldeological only Western democracy but also Moscow's claim to the leadership role weapon of all revolutionary people.28 within the socialist bloc. In September 1965,Renmin ribao published an article on revolution in Since its founding in 1949,the PRC had given high priority to its rela- developing countries,entitled 'Long Live the Victory of People's War!' tions with nationalist and colonial countries in Africa and Asia.Mao in the name of Lin Biao,China's defence minister.It was approved by believed that a strong coalition of countries in Africa and Asia could be Mao Zedong.The article attempted to apply the Maoist strategy in the decisive in Cold War confrontations.China's first effort to assume influ- Chinese revolution to the world scene,arguing that the 'rural areas of ence in these areas came in April 1955,when it attended the Bandung the world'in Asia,Africa and Latin America would eventually conquer Conference of Asian and African states.China's strategy emphasized the 'cities of the world'of the affluent countries of the West,following building political coalitions in Africa and Asia on two different lev- Mao Zedong Thought.Lin called on all the oppressed nations and peoples els.First,China supported 'national liberation struggle'both to force to rise up in a united front struggle against their enemies to win victory out the remaining colonial regimes and to overthrow those indepen- for world revolution.2 dent governments that were most closely allied with the West.Secondly, To implement Mao's radical policy,from 1966 to 1970,the CCP made China attempted to build close cooperative relations with the rest of the extensive contacts with those revolutionary parties and secret groups
168 Mao Zedong Yufeng Xia 169 that were willing to carry out violent revolution.The Chinese gov- Since the Sino-Soviet split,Mao's categorization of the 'intermediate ernment invited their representatives to China,introducing them to zone'had expanded.He began to reassess the changing balance of power Chinese revolutionary experiences,such as the rural area encircling between the two opposing blocs.He started to accept the wording of the cities,setting up a separate regime by force of arms,strategies and "Third World',frequently mixing up the two concepts.For example,on tactics of guerrilla warfare.In addition to providing funds and materi- 28 September 1963,he proposed at the CCP Central Committee work als,the Chinese also established special military institutes for foreign conference,'I think there are two intermediate zones,one is Asia,Africa revolutionarles who secretly came to China to learn tactics of armed and Latin America;the other Europe.'Mao claimed that neither Japan struggle and violent revolution.30 As China could offer very limited nor Canada was satisfied with the United States.He also mentioned economic assistance or advanced military equipment,its effort during that relations between the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries the 1960s and 1970s to shape the Third World into a third force in were tense.3 In January 1964,Mao told a group of Japanese visitors that international politics opposed to both of the two superpowers largely The United States and the Soviet Union own nuclear weapons.They failed. attempt to dominate the whole world.'as He maintained that there were Mao's world revolution ideal meant that he used ideological standards two 'Third Worlds':The first third world refers to Asia,Africa and Latin to interpret state-to-state relations.Thus,the territorial factor in China's America;the second third world refers to a group of highly developed relations with its neighbours was only an appendage to international capitalist countries,even some imperialist countries mainly in Western class struggle.For example,when discussing Sino-Indian border con- Europe.'Mao's two 'Third Worlds'concept evolved from his 'two inter- flicts with the delegation of the Indian Communist Party(ICP)leftists on mediate zones'terminology.Mao even drew a clear distinction between 13 December 1967,Mao indicated that he didn't really want to acquire East European countries and the Soviet Union.He also openly separated the 90,000 square kilometres of disputed land with India.However, China from the Sovlet bloc.Mao said,'There are 13 countries in the because India was an imperialist,feudalist and bureaucratic capitalist socialist bloc.Khrushchev doesn't have majority support.3 government,China had to fight for every inch of the land.China had Mao was not able to clearly distinguish the intermediate zone from been using dilatory tactics in dealing with this issue.Mao claimed that the category of class and revolution.In a conversation with a French Par- If the ICP leftists come to power and establish revolutionary people's liamentary delegation on 30 January 1964,Mao pointed out that there government,China would sign a treaty with them and return all the was similarity between China and France although France believed in land south of the McMahon Line to them.' capitalism,while China was a socialist country.Mao said,'Whether it is a capitalist or socialist country,no matter who wants to control us,we Two intermediate zones-to expand the international united will oppose them...'This is the first time that Mao referred to China as a front Third World country.Mao stated,'Haven't you talked about setting up a "third world"?If the "third world"consists of only France,it won't do. In the 1960s,Mao came to realize there were significant divergences [You should]unite whole Europe...to expand the "third world"from and contradictions among Western countries,for example Great Britain, London,Paris to China and Japan.'37 Besides,Mao gave more attention France and the United States.As part of the united front strategy,Mao to worldwide revolutions driven by revolutionary parties.Thus,during attempted to distinguish those countries from the United States,viewing this period,he usually regarded the 'intermediate zone'as an indirect them as a part of the intermediate zone.32 In a meeting with Yasui Kaoru, ally of anti-imperialist revolution. the chairman of the Japanese Association for the Prevention of Atomic As the concept of the Third World'had a specific implication,Mao and Hydrogen Bombs,in January 1962,Mao stated,The Socialist bloc is used the formulation of the intermediate forces in 1970,declaring 'the one side,the United States is the other...Everybody else belongs to the first intermediate force is the third world'while England,France and intermediate zone.But the nature of these countries in the intermediate Germany and many others are the 'second intermediate force'.38 As he zone is very different.'Mao claimed that most people of former colonial- clearly identified the United States and the Soviet Union as the nations ist powers,such as England,France,Belglum,Holland,West Germany to oppose and struggle against,such a formulation constituted the and Japan,could be'indirect allies of the people'.3 embryonic form of Mao's theory of 'three worlds