Potential contradictions between China and the Soviet Union since 1938 — after the conflict at Lake Hasan

Abstract

This article is based on existing research and published archives and, by systematizing this information, seeks to reflect as fully as possible China’s and the USSR’s judgment of the situation during the 1938 Soviet-Japanese border con-flict and the range of actions taken on the basis of that judgment. After the Lake Hasan conflict widened, the Chinese government believed that war would break out between Japan and the USSR, so it began to actively ally itself with the USSR both politically and militarily. While holding Wuhan, the Chinese army began planning counter-offensives and attempted to draw the USSR and Japan into a full-scale war. However, the conflict between Japan and the USSR did not escalate into a military clash. At this stage, the USSR also hoped that China would continue to share Japan’s military pressure, and after the Japan-Soviet peace talks, still insisted that the Chi-nese army launch a counteroffensive. After the loss of Wuhan and Guangzhou, the USSR’s vision could not be realized, and as a result, mutual dissatisfaction gradu-ally grew between China and the USSR. In such a situation, the close Sino-Soviet relations formed on the basis of the goal of “joint resistance to Japanese expansion” also began to be adversely affected, and after the conflict at Lake Hasan, these contradictions between the two sides also became one of the factors behind the emergence of disagreements between China and the USSR later on Soviet military aid to China and other issues.

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