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nese claim to sorne 33.000 square
kilometers ( 13,000 sq. mi.) of Soviet
territory ceded to Czar Alexan–
der 11 of Russia by China's weak
Manchu emperors more than a ccn–
tury ago.
Peking maintains the 19th cen–
tury territorial
agreement~
wcre
"unequa l treaties" imposed on
China by a stronger Czarist Russia,
a claim the Kremlin rejects.
In March 1969. the border contro–
versy erupted into armed fighting
on disputed Chen Pao [Damansky]
island in the ice-bound Ussuri River
north of Vladivostok. The bloody
clash, involving at least a baualion
of men on each side. resulted in the
deaths of over 30 Soviet border
guards and an unknown number of
Chinese - and brought the two na–
tions close to fufl-scale war.
As would be expected. the two
accounts of what actually touched
off the confrontation in the bleak
snow-swept wilderness of eastern
Asia dilfer widely.
In the wake of the fighting. the
C!linese government, through its of–
ficial New China News Agency.
warned Moscow that "hundreds of
millions of army men and civilians"
had been on alert. Further Soviet
attacks. warned the Chinese. would
be "crushed to pieces by the iron
fists of the 700 million Chinese
people."
After emotions cooled, however.
Chinese Premier Chou En-lai and
Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin met
in Peking in September 1969, and
agreed to begin border talks. But no
progress was ever reported, and thc
talks have been suspended since
May 1975.
In November 1972. another bor–
der incident. this time thousands of
miles to the west, took the lives of at
least five Soviet soldiers and severa!
shepherds near the historie Dzunga–
rian Gate. The "gate." used by Gen–
ghis Khan when he led his army
into the West, is a natural mountain
pass joining the Soviet Republic of
Kazakhstan and China's strategic
Sinkiang province - another arca
where territory is disputed. (See
map.)
Sixteen months later - in March
1974 - a Soviet helicopter with a
three-man crew was downed by the
Chinese in another remole arca of
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1976
u·.s.s.R.
SINKIANG
:
CHINA
!
~
~
~
CONTINUING RIFT betwften the Soviet Union and China
is
due. in part, to a
long-standing dispute over border territories.
Sinkiang province. The Chinese as–
serted the helicopter was on a spy
mission. The Soviet crew futilely
maintained that they had been
blown off course by a storm, becom–
ing lost in the Tien Shan mountain
range. Peking branded the claim a
"bunch of líes" and thc crew was
subsequently jailed.
In addition to these publicized
encounters, the total number of mi–
nor skirmishes and frontier viola–
tions along the tense. 4.500-mile–
long border is believed to run into
the thousands.
A Preemptive Strlke?
The Sino-Soviet borderlands remain
heavily fortified on both sides.
It
is
estimated that the Soviet Union
today has nearly a third·of its entire
army positioned in the China the–
ater. armed with modero weapons
and nuclear missiles. China has
been engaged in equally impressive
military preparations.
The makings of a big war are
clearly there. But will the order to
tire actually be givcn?
Despite the fact that a Soviet at–
tack against China would expose
the Soviet position in Europe - and
possibly encourage rebellions
among her East European satellites
- .the Chinese leadership has not
ruled out the possibility of a pre–
emptive Russian strike.
Chinese strategists do not look
upon the Soviet Union as a "paper
tiger." as they once termed the
United States. The Chinese are fully
aware that the Kremlin has already
discussed the possibility of a pre–
emptíve nuclear blitz against China
and that the Soviets have sufficient
nuclear muscle to totally devastate
their nation.
But China is also a nuclear power
- albeit a much smaller one - and
would be able to get
in
sorne nu–
clear blows of her own. China's mili–
tary leadership is currently engaged
in a program of modernizing the
nation's armed forces to increase
their effectiveness. ln addition.
China has a well-planned civil de–
fense system of immense scope.
Moreover. the Chinese have pub–
licly vowed to fight a 100-year war,
if necessary. to achieve victory in
any Sino-Soviet war which might
erupt. The enemy, Peking has as–
serted, would ultimately be
"drowned in the ocean of a people's
war." The specter of nüllions of Chi–
nese flooding across the border in a
mammoth guerrilla warfare cam–
paign is. by itself. a strong deterrent
to possible Soviet designs.
A war would clearly be futile and
counterproductive for all concerned.
Reconclllation?
The Sino-Soviet dispute. experts
contend. is not necessarily fixed in
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