Albania experienced the alignment with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for fifteen years. Albania’s need for economic assistance and protection towards Yugoslavia and China’s need to ensure its presence in the Mediterranean conditioned this relationship. It ended in 1978, causing devastating effects on Albania’s economy. However, the split in Sino-Albanian relations paved the ground for Albania’s foreign policy shift, leading to a slow openness towards its natural ally, Europe.
Although the bibliography about China’s attempts to penetrate European societies is abundant, two books help us understand how the People’s Republic has targeted Europe since the beginning of its existence. Maoism. A Global History by Julia Lovell, published in 2019, invites us to an insightful journey about how the PRC used the Maoist ideology to increase its presence worldwide. While the book dedicates few notes on Albania, it reveals how China used its tiny Balkan ally to finance the Marxist-Leninist and Maoist organisations in Europe, send ammunition to the Algerian independence movement, the National Liberation Front (FNL) and deliver training in politics and sabotage to young Afro-Asians, South-Americans and also Europeans.
Hidden Hand, by Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg, published in 2020, extensively studies China’s diplomacy and secret attempts to enhance the PRC’s role inside democracies worldwide and is particularly revealing concerning Europe. It helps us understand why many espionage cases and attempts to manipulate European democracies occur today. However, of particular interest is China’s programme to build – along with its political relations with British communists – a society of business people aiming to strengthen the Sino-British trade relations. The 48 Club was established in 1954 after 48 British business people visited China. The programme was a personal decision of the then Premier Zhou Enlai.
Albania played a crucial role in the PRC’s efforts.
In return, Albania received extensive financial aid from China, which helped the country build a vast infrastructure, including a railway net and hydroelectric plants. It was also crucial for its economy and industry, including fertiliser and garment factories. However, ideology seemed more important for the Albanian ruling party – the Party of Labour. Harsh criticism of the decision of the PRC to open diplomatic relations with the USA led to a split with the Asian giant after fifteen years of fruitful relations. For Ramiz Alia, a leading member of the political bureau and President of Albania since 1991, this was a great mistake, causing innumerable problems to the country’s economy and the supply of machinery and parts needed for its industry.
Not to blame only Albania, the contact with the Chinese during the Cultural Revolution also created problems inside the ruling party and society.
I met Ramiz Alia in Tirana in 1999. Although he was still a Communist who defended the regime’s beneficial role for Albania, he also held critical views concerning several points of the country’s post-World War II history.
In 2000, we spent two months discussing the regime, its international relations, and economic efforts, as well as his criticisms of the crucial decisions adopted by the communist government. The results of these conversations led to a book, Discussing Albania, published in Greek and immediately after in Albania in the same year. Unfortunately, the most exciting parts of our discussions were off the record, and I had to respect that.
Albanians were appalled by the Cultural Revolution
However, Alia’s memories of Sino-Albanian relations revealed that the Albanian leadership was shocked by the Cultural Revolution in China. Moreover, the bloody adventure China experienced also impacted its Balkan ally. Among the off-the-record memories were several concerning China’s pressure over Albania for various issues.
“The Cultural Revolution was led by a group later named the ‘Gang of Four’ whose leader was Mao’s wife. The inspirer of this movement that shocked China was Mao himself… This revolution trampled everything. It targeted the entire world’s cultural heritage, including Beethoven and Shakespeare,” said Alia.
“The leadership of our party continuously discussed the events in China, and it never agreed with its content and with such extremity… During our visit to China, I witnessed clashes between opponents, believing they represented Mao’s teachings. There were clashes between hundreds with several injured and possibly dead.”
This surrealistic, to some extent, expression of the Cultural Revolution appalled the Albanians. Alia remembered an invitation by Premier Zhou Enlai and the powerful Mao’s wife Jiang Qing to attend an opera-ballet in which the leading actor was a prominent Albanian. After the end of the spectacle, nobody applauded the Albanian dancer, while the Chinese actors received extended applause.
“Wasn’t good?” an astonished Alia asked the leader of the Gang of Four.
“Jiang Qing told me that the Albanian dancer was better than the others. However, his role as a Mandarin was negative, so nobody dared to applaud him. There is no doubt that we couldn’t understand this ‘revolutionary logic’.”
However, the Cultural Revolution also had devastating effects on Albania. While the ruling party was concerned about the risks of the “revolution“ represented for Albania, the Maoist “ideas“ had penetrated the youth of the Party of Labour, and several local branches of the party voted for the adoption of the Chinese “revolutionary“ measures. The leadership had to follow the masses’ will and not create friction with Beijing.
Albania introduced its own “Cultural Revolution,” which included banning religious edifices and practices, sending scientists to work in camps, abolishing military ranks like the People’s Army in China, and several other extremities.
Alia realised that this was a dangerous path. However, the party, led by the powerful Enver Hoxha, decided differently. In the mid-’80s, under Alia’s leadership, Albania allowed religious practice.
Opening to the West
After ending the Sino-Albanian relationship, the tiny Balkan state had only one option: to open towards Europe and the West. However, Albania had open disputes with the USA, Germany and the UK. Only in 1984 Albania started to negotiate with several European states. The visit of the then minister-president of the state of Bavaria, the conservative Franz Josef Strauss, who asked permission to visit the country as a tourist, was undoubtedly instrumental in opening Albania to the democratic world. Albania is now one of nine current EU candidate countries.
