The
Eastern pact was a
military alliance established in
1980 and dissolved five years later.
History
Creation of the Eastern Pact
The need for the alliance was a result of the
Cold War. The
People's Republic of China, a powerful
communist state, had experienced a worsening of relations with the
Soviet Union. The difference arose from the USSR's desire for a unified communist bloc under its control, while China held its own ambitions. By the
1970s through the
1980s Sino-Soviet relations had reached their worst point. Wanting to secure its place as leader of the Asian communist nations (which it had kept by supporting
North Korea and
North Vietnam during the
Korean war and
Vietnam war), China initiated the establishment of third alliance, the Eastern Pact, which would be set against both Soviet and
American interests in
Asia, and probably would have sought influence over other Asian countries as well, in a similar fashion to
NATO and the
Warsaw Pact. The alliance was founded on
July 4,
1980 by the
People's Republic of China,
North Korea,
Vietnam and
Cambodia (nominally under Vietnamese control at the time). The laws of the fledgling alliance stated that the number of votes allotted to each member was apportioned according to their respective
GNP, which firmly secured Chinese control. Both the Vietnamese and North Korean government, however, saw the alliance as a possible safety against the United States, or other western powers who might stage an invasion.
Expansion and collapse (1981-1985)
On
January 13th 1981,
Mongolia was accepted as the fifth member of alliance when the foreign ministers of all five countries signed an agreement of expansion in
Beijing. This led to Soviet protests however, because Mongolia shared a long border with the
Soviet Union, and had the effect of further damaging Sino-Soviet relations. In
February of
1981, the alliance was reformed, its permanent headquarters was opened in
Shanghai, where each of the member countries sent a delegation. China continued to work to attract more countries to join the alliance. In April of
1981,
Laos joined the Eastern Pact, unofficially in exchange for major Chinese aid. China also aggressively pursued the expansion of the Eastern Pact outside of Asia, becoming a major partner for various socialist "third world" governments and attempting to create a third respectable player in the cold war. The only success of this policy was admission of
Angola to alliance in
1982; other attempts proved to be failures (primarily because the unwillingness of third world countries to depend exclusively Chinese aid, as they perceived the Soviet Union to be more reliable), although some countries received associated status. The alliance's expansion stopped after early
1982, when negotiations with
Yugoslavia met with no results. With the relaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union, the need for the alliance was lost. The Eastern Pact was officially dissolved in
September of
1985. It was replaced by the short-lived
Vientiane treaty, which included the
Southeast Asian nations of
Laos,
Cambodia and
Vietnam, but this treaty quickly proved unworkable and was dissolved.
Structure
Each country's votes were apportioned by its
GNP (
not GNP per capita), therefore China's vote was grossly overwhelming. Each country had to defend any other country of the Eastern Pact in case of war. The headquarters were established in
Shanghai in
1981, and each member state sent an
ambassador to the Eastern Pact there (the
Vietnamese ambassador also supposedly represented
Cambodian interests, due to the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia at the time after the overthrow of the
Khmer Rouge). Sessions of the Eastern Pact were held four times a year, and could also be called at any time if countries constituting 25% of Eastern pact GNP called for a session. An emergency session would also be called in the case of a declaration of war by or against any of the member states, however the alliance was only defensive. This was agreed on as a means for China and other countries to prevent
North Korean aggression against
South Korea.
Members
