40 { China’s Quest
period after country-wide victory.”^28 Regarding socialist countries, Stalin
promised Liu Shaoqi during their mid-1949 Moscow talks that these countries
would recognize new China shortly after it was formally established. Within
a week of the PRC’s establishment on October 1, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria,
Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland had recognized and estab-
lished ambassadorial relations with it. East Germany and Albania took lon-
ger (October 27 and November 23, respectively). Beijing did not establish ties
with Titoist Yugoslavia, the target of Soviet and Chinese ire for “splitting the
socialist camp,” until January 1955. Tito offered diplomatic ties much earlier,
but Mao declined the offer in order to demonstrate fealty to Stalin. The first
Western country to establish ties with the PRC, at only the chargé d’affaires
level, was Britain in June 1954, in spite of a British unilateral declaration of
recognition in January 1950.^29
“Making a fresh start” entailed Chinese rejection of all agreements signed
by earlier Chinese governments and still valid under international law.
Earlier Chinese governments, including the Qing and the ROC, had signed
and ratified many treaties which were still legally valid, at least under tradi-
tional interpretations of international law. These treaties provided the legal
basis for a large Western presence in China. From the CCP’s perspective, this
entire structure of treaties was part and parcel of China’s “humiliation” and
needed to be overthrown. The CCP simply did not recognize these treaties
as having legal validity. New China would negotiate tabula rasa new agree-
ments premised on equality and noninterference. This process should begin,
in the CCP view, with Western powers apologizing for past “aggression”
against China, accepting the complete invalidity of earlier agreements, and
negotiating new treaties when China’s government decided the time to do
so was right. “Making a clean break” did not apply to relations with socialist
countries. The August 1945 Sino-Soviet agreements formed the basis for the
Sino-Soviet treaty of 1950.
The CCP’s revolutionary nationalist approach clashed with the more tra-
ditional US view. Under traditional international law, new states succeeded
to the obligations of their predecessors. Obligations legally agreed to by two
states did not evaporate because one of those states disappeared, but passed
on to successor states. The existence of US embassies, consulates, and other
official offices in China, and the privileges and immunities enjoyed by those
officials, were based on treaties and the customary obligations of states. US
leaders were dismayed by the CCP’s refusal to recognize what they felt were
China’s clear responsibilities under international law. They also believed that
by withholding US recognition and threatening to restrict China’s economic
ties with the West, the United States could pressure the PRC to accept its legal
responsibilities. The CCP, however, saw the entire structure of international
law as it existed as part of the imperialist mechanism used to oppress and
control countries like China.