Editing Sino-Soviet split (section)

=== Treaty of Sino-Soviet friendship ===
{{Main|Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance}}
In 1950, Mao and Stalin safeguarded the national interests of China and the Soviet Union with the [[Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance|Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance]]. The treaty improved the two countries' geopolitical relationship on political, military and economic levels.<ref>Lüthi, Lorenz M. ''The Sino-Soviet split: Cold War in the Communist World'' (2008) pp. 31–32.</ref> Stalin's largesse to Mao included a loan for $300 million; military aid, should Japan attack the PRC; and the transfer of the [[Chinese Eastern Railway]] in Manchuria, [[Lüshunkou District|Port Arthur]] and [[Dalian]] to Chinese control. In return, the PRC recognized the independence of the [[Mongolian People's Republic]].

Despite the favourable terms, the treaty of socialist friendship included the PRC in the geopolitical [[hegemony]] of the USSR, but unlike the governments of the Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, the USSR did not control Mao's government. In six years, the great differences between the Soviet and the Chinese interpretations and applications of Marxism–Leninism voided the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship.<ref>Crozier, Brian ''The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire'' (1999) pp. 142–157.</ref><ref>Peskov, Yuri. "Sixty Years of the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance Between the U.S.S.R. and the PRC, 14 February 1950" ''Far Eastern Affairs'' (2010) 38#1 pp. 100–115.</ref>

In 1953, guided by Soviet economists, the PRC applied the USSR's model of [[planned economy]], which gave first priority to the development of [[heavy industry]], and second priority to the production of consumer goods. Later, ignoring the guidance of technical advisors, Mao launched the [[Great Leap Forward]] to [[Chinese industrialization|transform agrarian China into an industrialized country]] with disastrous results for people and land. Mao's unrealistic goals for [[Agriculture in China|agricultural production]] went unfulfilled because of poor planning and realization, which aggravated rural starvation and increased the number of deaths caused by the [[Great Chinese Famine]], which resulted from three years of drought and poor weather.<ref>Lüthi, Lorenz M. ''The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World'' (2008) p. 31.</ref><ref>[[Shen Zhihua|Shen, Zhihua]] and Xia, Yafeng. "The Great Leap Forward, the People's Commune and the Sino-Soviet split" ''Journal of contemporary China'' 20.72 (2011): pp. 861–880.</ref> An estimated 30 million Chinese people starved to death, more than any other famine in recorded history.<ref name="China's Great Leap Forward">{{Cite web |title=China's Great Leap Forward |url=https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/chinas-great-leap-forward/ |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Association for Asian Studies |language=en-US}}</ref> Mao and his government largely downplayed the deaths.<ref name="China's Great Leap Forward"/>