Economic Dimensions of the Sino-Soviet Alliance and Split

Economic Dimensions of the Sino-Soviet Alliance and Split. Technology Transfers, Trade and Development Models in the Socialist World

Organizer
Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europas (GWZO) Leipzig
Venue
Zoom
Funded by
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
ZIP
04109
Location
Zoom/Leipzig
Country
Germany
From - Until
01.07.2021 - 02.07.2021
By
Jan Zofka, GWZO Leipzig

The workshop will examine the economic dimensions of the Sino-Soviet alliance from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, when thousands of East European specialists went to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to build hundreds of factories, and countless blueprints, interns and experts were exchanged. The presentations will ask for the significance of the exchanges, for interests and rationales of the protagonists, and for the international and global context in terms of power relations.

Economic Dimensions of the Sino-Soviet Alliance and Split. Technology Transfers, Trade and Development Models in the Socialist World

During the Sino-Soviet alliance thousands of East European specialists were sent to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to build factories, from steel works to textile mills. In the framework of Scientific-Technical Cooperation the PRC and Comecon states exchanged blueprints, interns and experts. These exchanges have been appreciated as the »largest technology transfer in human history«, but, nevertheless, they have not received systematic attention in research literature. Even in the growing field of global history of state socialism and the debate about »socialist globalization« the economic dimensions of the Sino-Soviet alliance remain conspicuously at the margins.

Thus, it is time to gather more comprehensive knowledge about the economic dimensions of the Sino-Soviet alliance of the late 1940s and 1950s and of its end in the early 1960s. The presentations will not only look at the Soviet Union’s exchanges with China, but also include the East European partner states’ activities. How significant were the exchanges for China, Eastern Europe, and the global context? What were the protagonists’ interests or rationales? How were these exchanges influenced by international power relations inside and outside the socialist camp? What was the role of COMECON? How did the world economy, and Western policies and technologies impact the East-East cooperation? The workshop will discuss these and further questions to contribute to the broader aim of developing an international political economy of socialism.

Programm

Thursday, 1 July
Introduction
12:00 CEST (Norfolk, VA 6:00, Shanghai/Hongkong 18:00)
Tao Chen and Jan Zofka: Socialist Globalization and the Economic Dimensions of the Sino-Soviet Alliance and Split

12:30 CEST (Norfolk, VA 6:30; Shanghai/Hongkong 18:30)
Huajie Jiang (Shanghai University): Trade with Socialist Comrades? China and the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (1949–1959)
Comment: Uwe Müller (GWZO)

13:30 CEST (Norfolk, VA 7:30; Shanghai/Hongkong 19:30)
Tao Chen (Tongji University, Shanghai): China and the Leipzig Trade Fair (1950–1965)
Comment: Max Trecker (GWZO)

14:20-15:30 CEST Late Lunch/Breakfast/Dinner break

15:30 CEST (Norfolk VA 9:30; Shanghai/Hongkong 21:30)
Austin Jersild (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA): The “Socialist World System” from Beijing to Conakry. Sino-Soviet Conflict as a Model for Failure in the Global South, 1950–1964
Comment: Steffi Marung (Universität Leipzig)

16:30 CEST (Norfolk, VA 10:30; Shanghai/Hongkong 22:30)
Péter Vámos (Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest): „Our Chinese comrades are determined to split and struggle.” The influence of the Sino-Soviet split on technological cooperation: the case of Hungarian railway experts in China
Comment: Elisabeth Kaske (Universität Leipzig)

Friday, 2 July
9:30 CEST (Norfolk, VA 3:30; Shanghai/Hongkong: 15:30)
Lin Chaochao (Institute of History, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences): Rethinking the Stalinist Model: The Origin and Institutional Logic of the Great Leap Forward in China
Comment: Felix Boecking (University of Edinburgh)

10:30 CEST (Norfolk, VA: 4:30; Shanghai/Hongkong: 16:30)
Ylber Marku (Zhejiang University, Hangzhou): Preparing for an alliance: China’s socialist model and Albania’s economic design in the early Cold War
Comment: Bernd Schäfer (Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC)

11:30 CEST (Norfolk, VA: 5:30; Shanghai/Hongkong: 17:30)
Valeria Zanier (Catholic University of Leuven): High hopes and low expectations. Introducing technology in the PRC in the years of the Sino-Soviet Alliance
Comment: Koji Hirata (Cambridge University)

12:30 (Lunch/Early Dinner/Wake-up Break)

Outlook and Conclusion
14:30 CEST (Norfolk, VA: 8:30; Shanghai/Hongkong: 20:30)
Oscar Sanchez-Sibony (Hongkong University): Toward a Political Economy of Socialism
Final Discussion

Contact (announcement)

ines.roessler@leibniz-gwzo.de
jan.zofka@leibniz-gwzo.de

Editors Information
Published on
25.06.2021
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