The outbreak of full-scale civil war and the beginning of the Cold War betweenWashington and Moscow in the summer of 1946made the leaders of the CPC change thebasic views they had held since the summer of 1942，and the concept of an "intermediaryzone"was raised.This concept had rich connotations and far-reaching significance.One element of this concept was that the rivalry between America and the SovietUnion would not decidedly influence the situation in China.6However，the conceptof an "intermediary zone"lasted for only a short period in the minds of the CPCleadership. In September 1947the Communist and Workers ‘Parties of nine European countriesestablished Information Bureau and issued a declaration stating that the world hadbeen divided into two camps ，the anti-imperialist democratic camp headed by theSoviet Union and the imperialist camp headed by the United States.Although thedeclaration made no mention of the major significance of the Chinese revolution ，the CPC Central Committee lost no time in welcoming the theory of "two camps"anddeclared that it would side with the Soviet camp. From the spring of 1948，the Communist leaders began to express their ardentdesire to strengthen their ties with the Soviet Union and make urgent politicaland ideological preparations for this new development within the party.Liu Shaoqistated in a simple and straightforward manner in an article that in the currentsituation it was impossible to remain neutral ，and that forming an alliance ornot forming an alliance with the Soviet Union was "a demarcation line between revolutionand counter-revolution，"and "a demarcation line between progress and retrogression"for a nation.7 1 |
