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Did the Soviet Union ever consider approaching Taiwan in offering to help subvert the Communist regime in Beijing during the Sino-Soviet conflict?

Asked by Brian_Ghilliotti (328points) January 4th, 2018

Did the Soviet Union ever consider approaching Taiwan in offering to help subvert the Communist regime in Beijing during the Sino-Soviet conflict?

Reviewing the history of the Kuomintang of China, which formed the KMT / Nationalist Party of China that eventually ruled Taiwan, I discovered that it was heavily influenced by Soviet influence.

Please see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang#Ideology_in_mainland_China_(1920s–1950s)

I also discovered that the KMT did much to assist Chinese Muslim minorities in western China cary out continued resistance to the Chinese Communists in Beijing after the Chinese Civil War was officially over in 1949. Also heavily supported by the CIA, this source of resistance lasted until 1953.

Please see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang_Islamic_insurgency

My question is did the Soviet Union ever consider approaching the KMT with help assisting it overthrow the Communists in Beijing? The Soviets would have been in a much better position to help support Chinese Muslim rebels for Taiwan than the CIA.

If this ever happened, I would presume the Soviets would have tried to achieve two goals:

1) Either put a pro-Soviet regime in power in Beijing or

2) Put a regime that was committed to the non-aligned movement, like India

Also, if this ever did happen, I could see why the KMT would have reservations:

1) In the past, Soviet behavior in western China more or less sought to absorb territory at mainland China’s expense. This was the case in the 1934 Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang, the Xinjiang Islamic Revolt in 1937, and the 1944 Ili Rebellion.

2) If mainland China realized what was going on, they could have escalated the situation by trying to initiate an attack against Taiwan, or possibly even the Soviet Union itself, if threatening Taiwan in this case did not restrain Soviet behavior.

Ghilliotti

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1 Answer

Zaku's avatar

That’s really interesting, but what’s the real question?

The Soviet Union was a big place, and full of very thoughtful clever people with imagination, and many of them very good at developing schemes. I have no doubt that someone did consider similar ideas, as well as many others.

Who specifically, and/or which specific groups within the USSR, if any, I have no idea. I’m not sure what it would mean to say that “the Soviet Union” considered something or not (and I wouldn’t know unless it happened to relate to the few topics I studied). Well, and I/we still wouldn’t know in any case unless it’s somehow public knowledge, but unless it is, then it would tend to be kept secret since it was a hypothetical subversive strategy.

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