130 { China’s Quest
escape the stereotyped image of his tutelage under Stalin. Khrushchev craved
respect, while Mao doled out condescension. Khrushchev reciprocated Mao’s
condescension by seeing Mao as “just like Stalin,” a very serious reproach for
Khrushchev—arrogant and supremely ungrateful. Khrushchev had adopted
a much more generous approach to China than Stalin had, and was China’s
benefactor in a number of ways. Yet Khrushchev saw little sign of Chinese
gratitude. Mao seemed to demand ever more from the Soviet Union, while
refusing reasonable moves that would benefit both the Soviet Union and
China, all the while challenging the CPSU’s status as leader of the socialist
camp and the international communist movement, and perhaps trying to
maneuver the USSR into confrontation with the United States. During their
four personal encounters (in October 1954, November 1957, August 1958, and
October 1959), Mao delighted in putting down Khrushchev in many ways,
small and large: correcting his ideological mistakes before others; criticiz-
ing his work style, again before others; lauding CPSU leaders purged by
Khrushchev; subjecting him to concerted criticism by second-rank Chinese
leaders; and demonstrating his superior swimming skills while nonswim-
mer Khrushchev was reduced to floating with inflated water wings or sitting
on the pool’s edge.The Soviet Union, the Great Leap, and the Transition
to CommunismAfter Mao launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign in July 1957, he achieved
elite unity behind the program of massive investment of resources in the ex-
pansion of heavy and defense industry known as the Great Leap Forward.
Launched in January 1958 at the start of the Second Five Year Plan, the Great
Leap was an all-out push to transform China within ten or fifteen years into
an industrialized and technologically advanced socialist great power. The
model for this great transformation was the Soviet transformation under
Stalin between 1928 and 1938, when, at least according to the Short Course,
the USSR had been transformed into an industrialized and technologically
advanced and powerful country within a period of ten years. Initially framed
in terms of speed of development, by 1960 Mao interpreted it in terms of
movement toward or away from a utopian communist organization of soci-
ety. While Khrushchev’s phony communism was taking the Soviet Union
away from communism, Mao’s correct policies would lead China toward that
desired goal.
China’s ties with the Soviet Union were intertwined with the ambitious
investment priorities of the Great Leap. The higher the rates of industrial
growth in China, the larger the level of capital goods imports from the Soviet
Union that would be required. Investment in consumer goods or foodstuffs