Mao's China and the Sino-Soviet Split: Ideological Dilemma

In his study of Sino-Soviet relations during the Cold War, Mingjiang Li, a political scientist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, argues that “when ideological differences exist between two countries, political leaders in one country are likely to regard the ideological and political orientation of the other country as a challenge and even a threat to their own domestic ideological and political program and goals” (p. 1). Relying on documents from the Chinese Foreign Ministry archive, Li uses his concept of “ideological dilemma” as an interpretative framework to reassess major events in Sino-Soviet relations from 1956 to the Zhenbao Island border clashes in 1969. Li states in his introductory chapter that he attempts to contribute not only to the empirical study of the process of the Sino-Soviet split but also to “International Relations theories” (p. 11). This is the first book on the Sino-Soviet split in English that has made...