SINO-SOVIET SPLIT

CAUSES

KHRUSHCHEV

BREZHNEV

Mao thought that Khrushchev had strayed too far from Stalinism i.e. 'true socialism'

Chinese not told about Cuban missiles

USSR hadn't supported China in Taiwan conflicts due to US involvement

attempted rapprochement due to US involvement in Vietnam failed - Mao reject USSR offer to place air bases on Sino-Vietnamese border as it felt like an intrusion

Mao opposed the Brezhnev Doctrine/action in Prague as an overly aggressive protection of socialism

Border disputes in 1969 - historically Chinese land challenged by PRC troops

March 1969 - Zhenbao Island

August 1969 - Xinjiang Province i.e. Sino-Soviet border - 1000 PRC killed by USSR soldiers

Brezhnev encouraged rumours of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against PRC - pushed Mao into the arms of the US

MOSCOW SUMMIT

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF DÉTENTE

both sided agreed to accept peaceful coexistence

both sides agreed to seek disarmament

both sides agreed to trade with one another

USSR saw Basic Principles as binding, US saw them as 'aims'

CONCLUSIONS

The Sino-Soviet Split came as a result of ideological and political rivalry between the two superpowers

Mao accused Khrushchev of revisionism and abandoning Stalinist Communism, and was also angry at his submission to the US in the Cuban Missile Crisis, where Mao had also been left in the dark

Mao disliked the Brezhnev Doctrine and tried to implement the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to try to establish China as the leading Communist power

Mao was angry at China's perpetual inferiority to USSR and resented that they were not treated as equal superpowers