In Quest of a New International Communist Alliance: The Yugoslav Mediation in the Renewal of Relations Between the Communist Parties of Italy and China (1977-1979)

With the death of Mao Zedong in September 1976, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) entered a new era in its development. Beijing initiated its transition from being a dogmatic and isolationist country, a self-perceived bastion of communist “purity”, towards becoming the realpolitik-oriented global power, as we know it today. These changes were followed with great attention by the communist parties of Italy and Yugoslavia, both hitherto harshly attacked by Mao’s China. The two parties, closely connected at that time, were eager to collaborate with the “new” Beijing, hoping to obtain an ally in their quest for undermining the Soviet hegemony within the international communist movement. Hence, when Yugoslavia managed to reestablish its relations with the PRC, in 1977, Enrico Berlinguer wrote a letter to Josip Broz Tito asking for his mediation in the renewal of Italian Communist Party’s (PCI) relations with the Chinese party. This article’s intention is to analyze the Yugoslav mediation between the PCI and Beijing, which was initiated with Berlinguer’s letter and ended in 1979.