We are Brothers but Not Allies: The Sino–DPRK Alliance Revisited

It is widely noted that China maintains a “special relationship” with North Korea, which is best epitomized by the Sino-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance that the two countries signed in July 1961. However, in the post-Cold War era, the raison d’être of this alliance treaty has been challenged. Against this backdrop, this paper traces China’s evolving interpretations of the Sino-DPRK friendship treaty. By investigating the process behind the signing of the treaty, it argues that Beijing signed an “alliance treaty” with Pyongyang to win over the latter in the context of the Sino-Soviet split. However, as China sought to improve its relations with Western powers, the Sino-DPRK friendship treaty became increasingly burdensome to Beijing. Thus, Beijing began to dilute the alliance nature of the treaty by no longer publicly affirming its security obligation toward Pyongyang. After Deng Xiaoping came to power in China, the treaty was found to be incompatible with Beijing’s newly promulgated foreign policy principle of non-alignment. To address this problem, Beijing ultimately reformulated the nature of Sino-DPRK relations and reinterpreted the Sino-DPRK friendship treaty—that is, China is not an ally of North Korea, and the Sino-DPRK friendship treaty carries only symbolic meaning without casus foederis. Based on these analyses, this paper claims that the security obligation of the Sino-DPRK friendship treaty is no longer functional

我们是兄弟但不是盟友：中朝同盟回顾

关键词：中朝同盟、中朝友好条约、朝鲜突发事件、鲜血凝成的同盟、唇齿相依

普遍认为，中国与朝鲜维持着“特殊关系”，而最能代表这种关系的就是1961年签署的《中朝友好合作互助条约》。然而，在后冷战时期，这个同盟条约存在的根本理由受到了挑战。本论文在此背景下追溯了中国对中朝友好条约的诠释是如何演变的。通过调查条约签署背后的过程，本文提出北京是在中苏分裂的背景下，为争取朝鲜而与平壤签订了“同盟条约”。然而，随着中国寻求改善与西方大国的关系，中朝友谊条约对北京来说越来越成为一种负担。因此，北京开始通过不再公开申明对平壤的安全义务来淡化条约的联盟性质。邓小平掌权以后，条约被发现与北京新推行的不结盟外交政策不相适应。为解决这个问题，北京最终重新定义了中朝关系的性质， 重新诠释了中朝友好条约，也就是–中国不再是朝鲜的盟友，中朝友好条约也只是具有象征意义，不再有结盟的实际理由。基于以上分析，本文认为中朝友好条约的安全承诺已经不再发挥作用。

Translated by Li Guo