Sino-Soviet split

Period of strained relations between the two major communist powers, China and the USSR, during the early 1960s, thus dividing the communist world. The tension was based partly on differences in ideology but also involved rivalry for leadership and old territorial border claims. The Chinese communists also criticized the USSR for supplying aircraft to India and for withdrawing technical and military aid to China in 1960. The USSR supported India in its border warfare with China between 1961 and 1962.

The roots of the Sino-Soviet quarrel were complex but more national than ideological in character. Basically the Chinese fiercely resented the fact that the Soviet leaders considered the growth of Soviet prosperity (and thus also the preservation of world peace) as preferable to all-out economic and military aid to the more backward communist states and the highly dangerous Soviet-US tension which would result. This strategic policy of the Soviet leaders was motivated by their fear, firstly of their own discontented populace, and secondly of the potential Chinese threat to the southeastern Soviet territories. Thus the Soviet leaders in 1958 halted nuclear aid and subsequently other aid to China and increasingly cooperated with the West both to preserve world peace (for example, the partial nuclear test-ban of 1963) and to develop advantageous economic relations.