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Chapter Five
Spring 1959: During this period, the Tibetan revolt is quelled. Tibetan culture is suppressed, and the Dalai Lama flees to India. This sparks criticism from the US and other Western nations. One interesting side effect is the formation of the Tibetan Liberation Army, funded in large part by Moscow. The TLA has only a thousand or so members to start with and has chapters in both Tibet and India. The Dalai Lama covertly criticises the movement for its militancy, but as such its goal of a Moscow-aligned, socialist Tibet is a long way off.

April 1960: The Spring Revolution in South Korea. Authoritarian president Rhee Syngman is overthrown by student revolutionaries. After a brief power vacuum, General Park Chung-hee becomes president. Park, however, rapidly proves himself just another dictator, whose sole saving grace is his pro-American policies.

June 27- August 1, 1960: The Mongolia Claim Crisis. (1) Chiang Kai-shek decides to attempt to enforce the ROC's claim to Mongolia, and stations over two hundred thousand troops on the border. Border clashes erupt between Mongolian and Chinese troops, and on July 28, Soviet and Chinese troops clash for the first time in fourteen years. Fears are immediately raised that Russia and China are on the brink of war and that Nanjing will need either nuclear weapons or for America to take part in a nuclear conflict with Russia to prevent atomic strikes obliterating China. Of course, this was Chiang's plan all along. His goal at this point is to get nuclear weapons, and sees frightening the Americans into giving him the technology as the quickest way to do so.

The gamble, however, does not work. Eisenhower is not willing to give Chiang the most powerful weapon in the world, not really trusting him. In the end, Chiang climbs down with an incredibly petty concession- he agrees to formally drop the ROC claim to Tannu Tuva, once a part of the Qing Empire, then a semi-independent domain until 1944, when its communist government voted to join the Soviet Union. "The Tannu Tuva question... it is no longer of importance," he claims. "As we do not at present share a land link with the territory, the area in between being under the control, unfortunately, of separatist leaders, it serves us no purpose, and we resolve to grant the Soviet Union the territory." However, he continues to claim Mongolia, and conversely, Mongolia retains its claim to Inner Mongolia. Nothing, then, has changed.

November 4, 1960: John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States.

January 22, 1961: With tremendous pride, Chiang announces in his Chinese New Year's Day speech, broadcast on state television, that the Republic of China's economy is now officially larger than Britain's, thus making it the second-largest in the world. Growth remains at a solid ten percent, meaning that if current trends continue, the ROC should be the largest economy in the world at some point in the mid-1970s. This is taken as a full validation of Chiang's economic policies. However, many note that income inequality remains a real problem in China, and many interior provinces are far behind those on the coast. The ROC's greatest triumph, however, will come later in the year...

1961: During this period, the ideological distance between Moscow and Harbin grows ever greater. Mao increasingly comes to see the USSR as having exchanged communism for a centrally-planned capitalist economy, and to have betrayed communism by eschewing Stalinism. Meanwhile, Khrushchev comes to see the Maoist regime as dangerously backwards, as evidenced by the Great Leap Forward. Although Mao knows that he is by no means strong enough to challenge the Soviets, the distance is growing. Mao is also wary that Khrushchev might try to sponsor a coup by one of his rivals in the CCP leadership such as Liu Shaoqi, or else to launch an armed invasion. The threat from Chiang Kai-shek, of course, cannot be discounted either.

September 19, 1961: After years of waiting, and with more than a little help from American scientists, China explodes its first atomic bomb. The test site is in Tibet, approximately fifty miles from Lhasa. Now, the last barrier to China being seen as a great power has fallen. Its programme will take time to develop, but by 1975 it will be on par with the Soviet Union. The ROC's many enemies take a dim view towards a new nuclear power. The USSR now makes plans to launch atomic strikes on Chinese nuclear facilities should the need arise. Mao wishes that there was some way to get the bomb, but knows that it is out of reach.

Another country's foreign outlook is affected by China becoming a nuclear power: India. Under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the country begins to look towards the USSR, already attempting to woo it, for a nuclear shield. Increasingly over the next few years, India tilts towards Moscow, and away from Washington. The Indian Communist Party gains traction, although it does not yet come to power.

January 3, 1962: In the People's Republic of North China, Liu Shaoqi is confirmed as state president. Seemingly an innocuous gesture, this is meant to heighten his profile in the event of any power struggle with Mao. Many within the CCP leadership come to see Liu as a potential alternative to Mao, who is blamed for souring relations with the Soviets and for the Great Leap Forward.

October 16-28, 1962: American spy planes discover Soviet missiles in Cuba, aimed at the continental US. For thirteen days, the world stands on the brink of nuclear war, until finally the Soviets agree to remove the missiles in exchange for a promise not to invade Cuba. (2)

May 1963: The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution officially begins. (3) The Cultural Revolution Small Group consists of Mao, his wife Jiang Qing, Chen Boda, and Kang Sheng.

In the summer of 1963, under Mao's reformed leadership, the People's Republic of North China becomes a state wracked with terror. Mao's Little Red Book occupies an even greater position than that occupied by Mein Kampf in Nazi Germany. Being labelled a "revisionist"- that is, one not sufficiently loyal to Maoism- is grounds for torture and death. Many CCP cadres are viciously purged and meet dreadful fates. Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi are both labelled as "capitalist-roaders" and are viciously persecuted. Deng is placed under various house arrests and is denounced. Liu, however, has a far worse fate coming for him. He is purged in August and will die in 1966, a broken man.

Mao makes a great deal of effort to incite violence across the PRNC, especially against foreigners and conservatives. Students, in particular, are exhorted to be violent. One of the most famous (or infamous, depending upon who you ask), is Zhang Pinfou, a high school student in Changchun. In July 1963, he and a group of friends beat their chemistry teacher to death with wooden poles after the teacher suggests that "perhaps Chairman Mao could let the people rule for a change and stop the persecutions." Zhang is granted the opportunity to meet Mao, and changes his name to Zhang Baoli, the given name meaning "violence". (4) All over the PRNC, incidents such as this take place.

In addition, Chinese culture is heavily attacked. Historic texts and monuments are all destroyed en masse, and scholars and academics are persecuted in droves, either forced to sing Mao's praises or killed. Even traditional Chinese opera and horticulture are stamped out. Places with high feng shui value are deliberately desecrated. All of these violent actions are possible in large part because of the creation of the Red Guards. This unit carries around the Little Red Book at all times, and attacks those denounced by Mao. Red Guards are given a high societal standing for their actions and frequently throw their weight around.

Many foreign leaders are also attacked- along with virtually all of the major Western leaders, many "revisionists" within the Communist world come under criticism. Posters in Harbin and elsewhere denounce Kim Il-sung as a "fat revisionist", while Khrushchev is criticised as placing the survival of his own power above Marxism-Leninism. For the Soviet leadership, the Cultural Revolution is simply the last straw. Plans are made to topple Mao's regime before it collapses and is swallowed up by Chiang Kai-shek...

(1) Analogous to the First Taiwan Strait Crisis
(2) It is altogether possible, that in TTL, where nuclear weapons are a little less taboo than OTL, the missiles could actually fly, but I didn't want to butterfly in the destruction of all humanity.
(3) Remember, since the PRNC was founded three years ahead of OTL, many events in its history are three years ahead of OTL as well.
(4) Analogous to the story of Song Binbin, but since Song hailed from Nationalist Beijing, I created this fictitious character to replace her.
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