the last remaining Japanese military presence. Soviet forces won a decisive victory while the Kwantung suffered massive casualties, with 700,000 having surrendered. The Soviet Union distributed some of the weapons of the captured Kwantung Army to the CCP, who would go on to battle the KMT in the Chinese Civil War. Independence of Mongolia The China, Soviet Union: Treaty of Friendship and Alliance was signed by the Soviet Union and the Republic of China. It stated that possible Mongolian independence was in exchange for the Soviets' failure to support the communists in China. War of Liberation and the People's Republic of China Between 1946 and 1950, the CCP was increasingly enjoying massive support from the Chinese people in the "War of Liberation" and effectively implemented a people's war, but the KMT became increasingly isolated and only belatedly attempted to stem corruption and to introduce popular reforms. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed by Mao Zedong, and by May 1950, the civil war was brought to an end by the Battle of Kuningtou, which saw the KMT expelled from Mainland China but remaining in control of Taiwan. With the creation of the People's Republic of China, the supreme political authority in the two countries became centered in two communist parties, which both espoused revolutionary Marxist-Leninist ideology: the CCP and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1951, Chinese Muslim General Bai Chongxi made a speech in Taiwan to the entire Muslim world that called for a war against the Soviets and the avoiding of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was accused of being blind to Soviet imperialism. From camaraderie to the Sino–Soviet Split After the PRC was proclaimed, the Soviet Union became its closest ally for several years. Soviet design, equipment, and skilled labour were sent out to help the Industrialization and the modernization of the PRC. In the 1960s, relations became deeply strained by the Sino–Soviet Split. In military terms, there was the low-level Sino–Soviet border conflict. The split was ideological and forced communist parties around the world to take sides. Many of them split, and the pro-Soviet communists were battling the pro-Chinese communists for local control of global communis. The split quickly made a dead letter of the 1950 alliance between Moscow and Beijing, destroyed the socialist camp's unity, and affected the world balance of power. Internally, it encouraged Mao to plunge