ABSTRACT
The big break in Sino-Soviet relations was the 1969 war, which at times appeared to leaders on both sides of the border to be expanding to the point where a nuclear confrontation might become inevitable. Although the PLA did not win most of its battles outright, it did well enough to force the Red Army into a deadlock. Meanwhile, the PLAN defended China’s coastline from a possible Soviet naval attack. It was also during the early 1980s when Deng Xiaoping opened up China to the West in his so-called “Open Door” reforms. This new policy, when added to the recently negotiated Sino-US alliance against the USSR, allowed the PLAN to purchase advanced weaponry from abroad, including most importantly from the United States. Arguably for the first time since 1949, the Chinese Communist Navy began to take on the characteristics of a world-class brown-water, and to some degree even ocean-going, blue-water fleet. All of this abruptly ended following the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
