Chinese support of the Lumumbist insurgencies in the Congo Crisis (1959-1965)

Using Foreign Ministry Archives and memoirs from China, this article explains the nature and the development of Chinese policy in the Congo Crisis, in particular, Beijing’s support of two Lumumbist movements in Kwilu and eastern Congo in 1963–5. While initially loyal to the Soviet Union, China sought to position itself as the leader of the newly independent ‘Third World’, sympathetic to – and able to provide experience, training and weaponry for – rural guerrilla struggles. However, China’s military assistance to opposition movements in Congo had to make sure not to provoke direct conflict with the United States.