Editing Sino-Soviet split (section)

=== Mao's nuclear-war remarks and two Chinas ===
[[File:Peng Dehuai, Ye Jianying, Nikita Khrushchev, Nikolai Bulganin.jpg|thumb|A meeting of some Sino-Soviet leaders in 1958. From left to right: [[Ye Jianying]], [[Peng Dehuai]], [[Nikolai Bulganin]] and  [[Nikita Khrushchev]]. ]]
Throughout the 1950s, Khrushchev maintained positive Sino-Soviet relations with foreign aid, especially nuclear technology for the Chinese atomic bomb project, [[Project 596]]. However, political tensions persisted because the economic benefits of the USSR's peaceful-coexistence policy voided the belligerent PRC's geopolitical credibility among the nations under Chinese hegemony, especially after a failed PRC–US rapprochement. In the Chinese sphere of influence, that Sino-American diplomatic failure and the presence of [[Taiwan and weapons of mass destruction|US nuclear weapons in Taiwan]] justified Mao's confrontational foreign policies with Taiwan ([[Republic of China]]).{{sfnp|Lüthi|2010|page=80}}

According to various sources including official CCP publications, at the [[1957 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties]] in Moscow, Mao Zedong made some controversial remarks on nuclear wars, saying that "I'm not afraid of nuclear war. There are 2.7 billion people in the world; it doesn't matter if some are killed. China has a population of 600 million; even if half of them are killed, there are still 300 million people left."<ref name=":18">{{Cite web |last=Shen |first=Zhihua |author-link=Shen Zhihua |date=2011-01-14 |title=毛泽东讲核战争吓倒一大片：中国死3亿人没关系 (4) |trans-title=Mao Zedong scared a lot of people when he talked about nuclear war: It doesn’t matter if 300 million people die in China (4) |url=http://history.people.com.cn/GB/205396/13725760.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323002721/http://history.people.com.cn/GB/205396/13725760.html |archive-date=2012-03-23 |website=[[People's Daily|People's Net]] |language=zh |quote=大不了就是核战争，核战争有什么了不起，全世界27亿人，死一半还剩一半，中国6亿人，死一半还剩3亿，我怕谁去。}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Xie |first=Jiashu |date=2014-08-25 |title=毛泽东是否说过"死3亿人没关系" |trans-title=Whether Mao Zedong actually said "it doesn't matter if 300 million people die"? |url=https://www.dswxyjy.org.cn/n1/2019/0228/c423725-30920896.html |url-status=live |journal=Chinese Social Sciences Today |language=zh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240827031636/https://www.dswxyjy.org.cn/n1/2019/0228/c423725-30920896.html |archive-date=2024-08-27 |quote=大不了就是核战争，核战争有什么了不起，全世界27亿人，死一半还剩一半，中国6亿人，死一半还剩3亿，我怕谁去。 |via=[[Institute of Party History and Literature]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-11-21 |title=China's nuclear arsenal was strikingly modest, but that is changing |url=https://www.economist.com/china/2019/11/21/chinas-nuclear-arsenal-was-strikingly-modest-but-that-is-changing |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191121134129/https://www.economist.com/china/2019/11/21/chinas-nuclear-arsenal-was-strikingly-modest-but-that-is-changing |archive-date=2019-11-21 |access-date=2025-01-08 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |issn=0013-0613}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolfsthal |first=Jon B. |date=2025-01-09 |title=How to Reason With a Nuclear Rogue |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/12/north-korea-nukes-icbm-test-nuclear-weapons/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712125048/https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/12/north-korea-nukes-icbm-test-nuclear-weapons/ |archive-date=2017-07-12 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=[[Foreign Policy]] |language=en-US}}</ref> His remarks shocked many people, and according to the recollection of Khrushchev, "the audience was dead silent".<ref name=":19">{{Cite journal |last1=Shen |first1=Zhihua |author-link1=Shen Zhihua |last2=Xia |first2=Yafeng |date=2009 |title=Hidden Currents during the Honeymoon: Mao, Khrushchev, and the 1957 Moscow Conference |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26922964 |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=111 |doi=10.1162/jcws.2009.11.4.74 |jstor=26922964 |issn=1520-3972|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":20">{{Cite journal |last=Shen |first=Zhihua |author-link=Shen Zhihua |date=April 2012 |title=毛澤東與1957年莫斯科會議 |trans-title=Mao Zedong and the Moscow Conference in 1957 |url=https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/media/articles/c105-200701085.pdf |url-status=live |journal=[[Twenty-First Century]] |issue=105 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611072555/https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/media/articles/c105-200701085.pdf |archive-date=2024-06-11 |via=[[Chinese University of Hong Kong]]}}</ref><ref name=":18" /> A number of Communist leaders, including [[Antonín Novotný]], [[Władysław Gomułka]] and [[Shmuel Mikunis]], expressed concerns after the meeting, eventually aligning themselves with the Soviet due to the combativeness of Mao's policies.<ref name=":19" /><ref name=":20" /><ref name=":18" /> Novotný, then [[First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]], complained that "Mao Zedong says he is prepared to lose 300 million people out of a population of 600 million. What about us? We have only twelve million people in [[Czechoslovakia]]."<ref name=":19" /><ref name=":20" /> Mao had reportedly said similar things in 1956 when meeting with a delegation of journalists from [[Yugoslavia]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mao |first=Zedong |date=1956-04-21 |title=接见南斯拉夫新闻工作者代表团时的谈话（摘录） |trans-title=Conversation when receiving a delegation of Yugoslav journalists (excerpt) |url=https://www.marxists.org/chinese/maozedong/1968/3-081.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240421205409/https://www.marxists.org/chinese/maozedong/1968/3-081.htm |archive-date=2024-04-21 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |language=zh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=October 17, 1964 |title=Mao's theory on atomic bomb: They can't kill us all |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1964/10/17/Maos-theory-on-atomic-bomb-They-cant-kill-us-all/1653831424805/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225162035/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1964/10/17/Maos-theory-on-atomic-bomb-They-cant-kill-us-all/1653831424805/ |archive-date=2024-12-25 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=[[United Press International]] |language=en}}</ref> and in 1958 at the second meeting of the [[8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mao |first=Zedong |date=1958-05-17 |title=在八大二次会议上的讲话（二） |trans-title=Talk at the Second Session of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China (2) |url=https://www.marxists.org/chinese/maozedong/1968/4-030.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611190338/https://www.marxists.org/chinese/maozedong/1968/4-030.htm |archive-date=2024-06-11 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |language=zh |quote=原子仗现在没经验不知要死多少。最好剩一半。次好剩三分之一。二十几亿人口剩几亿，几个五年计划就发展起来，换来了一个资本主义全部灭亡。取得永久和平，这不是坏事。}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Yang |first=Kuisong |author-link=Yang Kuisong |date=2014-05-23 |title=毛泽东清楚建国后中国农村仍存在逃荒及卖儿卖女现象 |trans-title=Mao Zedong knew that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were still phenomena of fleeing from famine and selling sons and daughters in rural areas of China |url=https://news.ifeng.com/a/20140523/40427960_0.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722220309/https://news.ifeng.com/a/20140523/40427960_0.shtml |archive-date=2014-07-22 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=[[Phoenix New Media]] |publisher=[[Caijing]] |language=zh}}</ref> In 1963, the Chinese government issued a statement, calling the quote of "300 million people" was a slander from the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1963-09-01 |title=中华人民共和国政府发言人声明——评苏联政府八月二十一日的声明 |trans-title=Statement by the Spokesperson of the Government of the People's Republic of China - Comment on the Statement of the Soviet Government on August 21 |url=https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/shuju/1963/gwyb196316.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240702191343/https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/shuju/1963/gwyb196316.pdf |archive-date=2024-07-02 |website=[[Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China]] |page=299-300 |language=zh}}</ref>

In late 1958, the CCP revived Mao's guerrilla-period [[Mao cult|cult of personality]] to portray ''Chairman Mao'' as the charismatic, visionary leader solely qualified to control the policy, administration, and popular mobilization required to realize the Great Leap Forward to industrialize China.{{sfnp|Lüthi|2010|pages=81–83}} Moreover, to the Eastern Bloc, Mao portrayed the PRC's warfare with Taiwan and the accelerated modernization of the Great Leap Forward as Stalinist examples of Marxism–Leninism adapted to Chinese conditions. These circumstances allowed ideological Sino-Soviet competition, and Mao publicly criticized Khrushchev's economic and foreign policies as deviations from Marxism–Leninism.