capitalist bloc and the defence of the Far East. The Sino-Soviet strategic partnership was a dilemma for Stalin. On the one hand, assisting and having a trusted socialist ally like China in East Asia would immensely tip the balance of power to the Soviet Union’s favour and reinforce Soviet leadership in the communist world. On the other hand, Stalin feared that Mao would become a second Tito defying Soviet will after the recovery from the war. Although the $300 million was materialized in the end, the agreement came with much more stringent conditions than those signed between the USSR and Eastern European socialist countries. For example, the Soviet treaty concluded with Eastern European countries spoke in terms of “immediately giving all available military and other assistance”. However, Stalin revised the aid agreement to “provide all possible economic assistance” and imposed more stringent conditions on the treatments of Soviet experts. Also, technological assistance regarding nuclear weapons was held off until the Khrushchev era. According to Mao, it was only after the Korean War did China won the trust of the Soviet Union, followed by more aid, cooperation and the 156 Projects. On the Chinese side, Soviet aid constituted the most important and viable means for reconstruction and recovery. China thus faced a trade-off between aid and revision of the independence of Outer Mongolia acknowledged in the Sino-Soviet treaty signed by the KMT government. There was also uneasiness around creating Sino-Soviet joint ventures, which Mao believed embodied certain degrees of Soviet paternalism and distrust. Also, the Soviet loan was not for free. Stalin demanded the entirety of Chinese surplus production of strategically important resources to be sold to the Soviet Union as repayment. Between 1954 and 1959, China supplied 160,000 tons of tungsten ore, 110,000 tons of copper, 30,000 tons of antimony, and 90,000 tons of rubber to the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, given the stake of this treaty for both sides, none of these impeded the final agreement. Effects and legacy China Soviet aid to China, as stipulated in the treaty, played a pivotal role in shaping the Chinese economic system securing the survival of the newly established Communist regime and contributed to the recovery from the devastation of prolonged wars, industrialization, and modernization of Communist China. Namely, the Soviet aid, both technical expertise and assistance in material forms such as equipment, funds, and infrastructure construction, helped lay the groundwork for China’s