China-GDR Relations from 1949 to 1989

This book provides an in-depth and very lively analysis of relations between China and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1949 to 1989. It is the first and only comprehensive and detailed analysis of East German-Chinese ties and interactions in English. Chinese-East German relations, which over the decades have experienced some "highs" but many more "lows". " Low points came to the fore in the early 1960s when the Soviet Union ordered its vassal state in East Berlin to treat its former socialist comrade and brother-in-arms in Beijing as an adversary and even an enemy. In fact, the "Sino-Soviet split" ensured that until the late 1980s East Berlin and Beijing were more likely to talk about each other than to talk to each other.

The second revised and extended edition of the book draws on a wealth of East German archival material. These include documents and reports from the archives of the GDR's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED), the notorious East German Ministry of State Security (Stasi), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Together with extensive secondary literature and almost everything that was ever written about China in East German newspapers from the 1950s to 1990, this book examines selected issues and areas of East German and Chinese domestic and foreign policy, placing policies and interactions in their historical context. It offers very detailed and well-documented insights into the following aspects: 1. the bilateral "honeymoon period" from 1949 to the late 1950s, during which both sides supported and applauded each other's oppressive domestic economic policies, including Mao's Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution; 2. the 1960s, when the "Sino-Soviet split" determined the quality and level of bilateral interactions and tensions; 3. the 1970s, when Beijing replaced socialist comradeship with East Berlin with trade and aid from the US and Germany; and 4. the resumption of bilateral relations in the 1980s. The 1970s, when Beijing replaced socialist comradeship with East Berlin with trade and aid from the US and West Germany; and 4. The resumption of Sino-German relations in the 1980s and the subsequent period up to the Tiananmen Square protests and the collapse of the GDR in 1989. The book will appeal to historians, political scientists and international relations scholars, as well as policymakers and diplomats interested in this under-researched area.