HY1101E | Semester 1 | 2023-24

Tutorial 4 (Week 9): Communist Ideologies in Asia

For this tutorial, we are going to examine the contents and experiences of Communist ideologies
in China and North Korea.

Sources:

China
1) Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance between the People’s Republic of
China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, February 14, 1950
2) Mao Tse-tung, Speech at the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of
the Communist Party of China, 1956 (Sections II and III, the rest is optional)

Note: Mao’s speech was delivered a few months after Nikita Khrushchev’s famous speech at a
major meeting of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev was very critical of
Stalin for many of his policies and particularly for his cult of personality. Communist Party
leaders in many countries were shocked by this denunciation of such an important Soviet leader
by his successor.

North Korea (and diaspora)

3) On the idea of Juche 主体（思想）
4) An interview of Kang Yang-Ok, “Dear General Kim Il-Sung”

Note:
Koreans who continue to live in Japan for generations are now called “zainichi 在日(Koreans-in-
Japan).” Many remained in Japan since they had moved voluntarily or forcedly during the
colonial period, and others migrated before, during, after the Korean War. Although more than
97% of the zainichi originally came from the southern part of Korea, most of them supported, at
least initially, the northern regime.

Instructions:

Read all the sources and think of the following questions:

 What are the bases for the friendship and alliance between China and the Soviet Union in
document 1?
 How does document 2 reflect the emerging tensions between Moscow and Beijing?
 Comparing Maoism (from lecture and document 2) and Juche (document 4), what
similarities and differences can you observe?
 How was the ideology of Kim perceived in document 5? What kind of specific
experiences and backgrounds influenced her reception? How do you explain their
enthusiasm?