Item COLD WAR 5/3 - Transcript of interview with government official Liu Binyan, 1997

Typescript transcript of interview with Liu Binyan, [Government official, People's Republic of China], relating to the decision by Chairman Mao Zedong to ally the People's republic of China with the USSR, 1949; Mao's slogan of 'leaning to one side', to seek the support of the USSR and not the USA, 1949; relations between China and the USSR, 1949-1959; the effect of the Korean War on Sino-Soviet relations, 1950-1953; speculation on the possibility of China becoming a satellite of the USSR, [1953-1959]; the causes of the Great Famine in China, 1958; the effects of the breakdown in Sino-Soviet relations on the Chinese economy, 1959-[1965]; the consequences of the Great Famine and the Great Leap Forward (an attempt to galvanise the Chinese economy) in the Chinese countryside, 1958; the Mao personality cult, 1944-1976; Binyan's reaction to the rapprochement between the USA and the People's Republic of China, 1972-1979. 16pp