'Accarezzando' il drago comunista: La diplomazia britannica tra la rivoluzione cinese e l’alleanza sino-sovietica (1949-1950)

This essay analyzes how the United Kingdom has readjusted the posture of its world power to cope with the new international scenario determined by the so-called Chinese «leaning to one side». The victory of Maoist communism in the civil war in October 1949, along with the newly-born People’s Chinese Republic’s alliance with the Soviet Union in February 1950, gave the Asian political and strategic dynamics central stage in the British diplomatic agenda. The creation of a strategic axis between Moscow and Beijing, on the one hand, had regional and systemic consequences, and, on the other, it put to the test the complementarity of the British and US imperial projects — with the end result of forcing them to renegotiate their international roles.