As a standard case study in the interrelationship between China and its changing relationship with the Soviet Union, the quotation "imperialism has shaped the main contours of Chinese revolution from its inception" is a way in which one may view the dichotomies between the two communist countries and their respective revolutionary and political ideals. Since the two countries share a large border, the political events in each region continue to have a dramatic effect on the attitudes and perceptions of the other, whether that translates into political or ideological rhetoric. Since the specifics of the relationship between China and the Soviet Union would fill volumes, this paper will concentrate on the major events which shaped the attitudes between the countries, and will try to come to some conclusion regarding both the negative and positive effects of imperialism and the shaper of policy.
In 1911, the Ch'ing dynasty collapsed and created a power vacuum in Asia. When combined with the residual effects of World War I, and the European attention away from Asia in favor of Europe, the political situation in China took on a greater significance. With the 1917 revolutions in the Soviet Union, the absence of a strong and favorable regime in China immediately created problems for the new Soviet government. Almost instantly, the Soviet government began to worry about the Japanese presence in China, especially in remembrance of the disastrous events that surrounded the Russo Japanese War less than twenty years previously. After that war, the empire of Japan emerged as the vastly superior power in Asia, with certain desires to expand into China. After the Bolshevik revolution, the Soviets were forced to change the way the approached foreign policy, from the more traditional roles to the new concepts of Marxism Leninism.1
Thus, it was the two sided imperialistic relationship that forced China to have a relationship with the Soviet...