CONCEPT – THE USSURI CONFLICT, 1969

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CONCEPT – THE USSURI CONFLICT, 1969

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• Sino – Soviet split in 1950s: Despite both being communist nations, the Chinese and Soviets could not continue their relationship once Joseph Stalin died. The Sino-Soviet split (1956–1966) was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), caused by doctrinal divergences due to different interpretations of Marxism–Leninism by them. This led to military skirmishes too.
• Border conflicts: The Sino-Soviet border conflict was a 7-month undeclared military conflict between the two in 1969. The military clashes ceased in late 1969, but the underlying issues were not resolved until the 1991 Sino-Soviet Border Agreement.
• Ussuri conflict: The most serious of these border clashes, which brought the two communist-led countries to the brink of an all-out war, occurred in March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao (Damansky) Island on the Ussuri (Wusuli) River. This is also called the Zhenbao Island Incident.
• Details of the incident: It lasted 2 March – 11 September 1969, the location was the border between China and the Soviet Union, and result was Status quo ante bellum. Some territorial changes happened – Dispute was resolved in a series of border agreements that Russia and China concluded in 1991, 1994 and 2004. China received several hundred islands on the Argun, Amur, and Ussuri rivers, including Damansky (Zhenbao), Tarabarov (Yinlong) and approximately 50% of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island (Heixiazi Island) near Khabarovsk.
• Comparison: Both sides knew that the People's Liberation Army was militarily inferior to the Soviet Army as far as equipment was concerned. But the Chinese adopted an asymmetric deterrence strategy that threatened a large-scale conventional "People's War" in response to a Soviet counterforce first-strike. China's superiority in sheer numbers of troops was the cornerstone of Beijing's strategy to deter a Soviet nuclear attack. Mao believed in “man over weapons”.
• Precautions: As war fever grew, both nations took steps to lower the danger of a large-scale conflict. On 11 September 1969, Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin met his Chinese counterpart, Zhou Enlai, at the Beijing airport. Talks commenced.
• Why did it happen? Western scholars feel that the military clashes were primarily the result of Mao Zedong's domestic mobilization strategies, connected to his worries about the development of the Cultural Revolution.” Russian historians point out that the consequences of the conflict stem directly from the desire of the PRC to take a leading role in the world and strengthen ties with the US.
• Mao’s dream: Chairman Mao sought to elevate his country from the world's periphery and place it at the centre of world politics. At the same time, the Brezhnev-Nixon détente talks had happened. Now, the Damansky incident could serve the double purpose of undermining the Soviet image of a peace-loving country (if the USSR chose to respond with a massive military operation) or demonstrating Soviet weakness.
• End result: After the conflict, America showed interest in strengthening ties with the Chinese government by secretly sending Henry Kissinger to China for a meeting with Prime Minister Zhou Enlai in 1971, during the so-called Ping Pong Diplomacy, paving the way for Richard Nixon to visit China and meet with Mao Zedong in 1972.
• Aftermath: China's relations with the USSR remained sour after the conflict, despite the border talks, which began in 1969 and continued inconclusively for a decade. The Soviet Union further increased its forces along the Sino-Soviet border, and in the Mongolian People's Republic. Overall, the Sino-Soviet confrontation, which reached its peak in 1969, paved the way to a profound transformation in the international political system.

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