Pierre Andrieu is a former ambassador, senior colleague in Sino-Russian relations in Asian Society. He teaches international relations at several French universities (Sciences Po Paris, Inalco, ISIT, ESCP) and abroad. He published Geopolitics of Russian-Chinese relations (PUF, 2023).
Can we talk about an alliance between Russia and China, or just a strategic partnership?
The People’s Republic of China (PRC), founded in 1949 by Mao Zedong, signed a “treaty of friendship, alliance and mutual assistance” with the Stalinist Soviet Union in February 1950. This formal alliance placed China, then weak and backward, in the position of a “little brother” and political and economic dependency compared to the powerful Soviet Union, which aligned Beijing with the “socialist camp.”
China still has bad memories of this forced alliance. Mao hated being subject to Stalin, and shortly after the dictator’s death in 1953, he broke with the Soviet Union. Regarding the alliance treaty, it was not extended when it expired in 1980 and was replaced in 2001 by a “treaty of good neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation” that did not include any alliances. Updated in 2021, this text allows for the building of a solid partnership to meet the respective interests of both countries.
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