China’s goal of expansionism and territorial greed is a topic of great tribulations to nations today, particularly those that share a border with it. Barring the usual suspects such as India, Nepal. Vietnam, Indonesia and 10 others, with whom China has repeatedly had border rows, a surprise entry in this list is Union of Soviet Socialist Russia. At the peak of it in 1969, Sino-Soviet clashes reached a tipping point when Soviet Russia nearly nuked its only Asian ally at that time.
March 2, 1969, could have been the day the two Communist countries almost entered into a full-fledged war against each other. The Soviet Union readied itself to deploy nuclear warheads on its neighbour in as little as 15 minutes, following a territorial issue over disputed land, as revealed by declassified CIA documents. The land in question is a small island in the Ussuri River on the border of Primorsky Krai in Russia and Heilongjiang in China.
East versus the Far East
In the red corner, the USSR was at the pinnacle of their military expansion after having just reeled out of Bay of Pigs in Cuba and taking the US on head-to-head. Still leading the arms race, their military might was unmatched under the iron fist of Leonid Brezhnev, a close aide of both Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev. CIA analysts explained in the recently declassified documents that Beijing had ordered its soldiers to ambush a unit of Soviet KGB border troops protecting the area.
In the other red corner was China, grappling under the firm grip of Mao Zedong. The clash was premeditated as the KGB was forced to retreat into foxholes until more resources were deployed by Moscow. The brutal ambush quickly escalated into what is known as ‘pushing war’, where troops from both sides patrolled the same contested stretch of land for decades. China’s president and supreme leader Mao Zedong’s risqué gamble initially worked, but only to be quickly kicked down and shown his place in the world order.
Little did Mao Zedong expect that the clash would unleash a huge buildup of USSR’s Red Army forces in the region. The CIA files indicate that Soviet’s Strategic Missile Forces who went on high alert after the incident sent their nuclear warheads to threaten China. Warplanes armed with nuclear missiles were ready to be unleashed at targets 1,600 km away in less than 15 minutes
The KGB’s elite border forces surrounded the island and the Chinese detachment and according to the CIA files, “several hundred” Chinese casualties were recorded.
Mao Zedong, who had not anticipated this quietly withdrew his troops from the area and conceded defeat. The ugly fallout between the Communist allies though came as a shock to the West and the rest of the world, both countries agreed to back down and engage in diplomatic negotiations over the disputed territory. However, it was hardly a negotiation, considering the region is fully owned and controlled by Russia now and China has stopped staking its claim on the area ever since.
China’s crushing defeat documented in the CIA files and quoted by the US administration reminds Mao Zedong’s successor today that its aggressive expansionism is not only a matter of failed foreign policy but also of the Communist ideology. Though the relationship slowly normalised between the two countries, the grudge match between USSR and China remained the same as Mao Zedong continued to blame the Soviets for failing China during its Civil War from 1927-1950. The contested land is still a pain point to sections of communities in the northeast province who cry foul every year Russia celebrates the anniversary of its categorical win in the clash.
