Editing Enver Hoxha (section)

=== Relations with China ===
[[File:Mao-Hoxha CR Poster.jpg|thumb|A [[Cultural Revolution]] poster promoting Albanian-Chinese cooperation featuring Hoxha and Mao; 

The caption at the bottom reads, "Long live the great union between the Parties of Albania and China!" The two leaders only met twice—first in 1956 during Hoxha's visit to China, and again in 1957 at the Moscow meeting of Communist and Workers' parties—before the formation of the Sino-Albanian alliance.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1980b|pp=231–234, 240–250, "My First and Last Visit to China"}}</ref>]]
{{main|Albania–China relations}}

At the start of Albania's third five-year plan, China offered Albania a loan of $125&nbsp;million, which would be used to build twenty-five chemical, electrical and metallurgical plants in accordance with the plan. However, the nation discovered that the task of completing these building projects was difficult because Albania's relations with its neighbors were poor and because matters were also complicated by the long distance between Albania and China. Unlike Yugoslavia or the USSR, China had less economic influence on Albania during Hoxha's rule. During the previous fifteen years (1946–1961), at least 50% of Albania's economy was dependent on foreign commerce.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=40}}

By the time the 1976 constitution was promulgated, Albania had mostly become self-sufficient, but it lacked modern technology. Ideologically, Hoxha found that Mao's initial views were in line with Marxism–Leninism due to his condemnation of Khrushchev's alleged revisionism and his condemnation of Yugoslavia. The financial aid which China provided to Albania was interest-free, and it did not have to be repaid until Albania could afford to do so.{{Sfn|Hamm|1963|p=45}}

China never intervened in Albania's economic output, and Chinese technicians and Albanian workers both worked for the same wages.{{Sfn|Hamm|1963|p=45}} Albanian newspapers were reprinted in Chinese newspapers, and they were also read on Chinese radio, and Albania led the movement [[China and the United Nations|to give the People's Republic of China a seat]] on the [[United Nations Security Council|UN Security Council]].{{Sfn|Pearson|2006|p=628}} During this period, Albania became the second largest producer of [[chromium]] in the world, which China considered important. Strategically, the Adriatic Sea was attractive to China because China hoped that it could gain more allies in Eastern Europe through Albania - a hope which was misplaced. [[Zhou Enlai]] visited Albania in January 1964. On 9 January, "The 1964 Sino-Albanian Joint Statement" was signed in Tirana.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=48}} The statement said of relations between socialist countries:
{{Blockquote
| text = Both [Albania and China] hold that the relations between socialist countries are international relations of a new type. Relations between socialist countries, big or small, economically more developed or less developed, must be based on the principles of complete equality, respect for territorial sovereignty and independence, and non-interference in each other's internal affairs, and must also be based on the principles of mutual assistance in accordance with proletarian internationalism. It is necessary to oppose great-nation chauvinism and national egoism in relations between socialist countries. It is absolutely impermissible to impose the will of one country upon another, or to impair the independence, sovereignty and interests of the people, of a fraternal country on the pretext of 'aid' or 'international division of labour.'<ref>"Sino-Albanian Joint Statement", ''Peking Review'' (17 January 1964) 17.</ref>}}
[[File:HODŽA druhá míza.jpg|thumb|197x197px|Hoxha in 1971]]
Like Albania, China defended the "purity" of [[Marxism]] by attacking [[American imperialism]] and "Soviet and Yugoslav revisionism", both of them were equally attacked as part of a "dual adversary" theory.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=68}} Yugoslavia was viewed as both a "special detachment of U.S. imperialism" and a "saboteur against world revolution".{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=68}} However, these views began to change in China, which was one of the major issues which Albania had with the alliance.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=49}} Additionally, unlike Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, the Sino-Albanian alliance lacked "...&nbsp;an organisational structure for regular consultations and policy coordination, and it was also characterized by an informal relationship which was conducted on an ''ad hoc'' basis." Mao made a speech on 3 November 1966 in which he claimed that Albania was the only [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] state in Europe and in the same speech, he also stated that "an attack on Albania will have to reckon with the great [[People's Republic of China]]. If the U.S. imperialists, the modern Soviet revisionists or any of their lackeys dare to touch Albania in the slightest, nothing lies ahead for them but a complete, shameful and memorable defeat."{{Sfn|Hamm|1963|p=43}} Likewise, Hoxha stated that "You may rest assured, comrades, that come what may in the world at large, our two parties and our two peoples will certainly remain together. They will fight together and they will win together."{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=58}}

==== Shift in China's foreign policy after the Cultural Revolution ====
During the [[Cultural Revolution]], China entered into a four-year period of relative diplomatic isolation, however, its relations with Albania were positive. On 20 August 1968, the [[Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia]] was condemned by Albania, along with the [[Brezhnev doctrine]]. Albania refused to send troops to Czechoslovakia in support of the invasion, and it officially withdrew from the Warsaw Pact on 5 September.

Albania's relations with China began to deteriorate on 15 July 1971, when United States President [[Richard Nixon]] agreed to visit China in order to meet with Zhou Enlai. Hoxha believed that China had betrayed Albania, and on 6 August, the Central Committee of the PLA sent a letter to the Central Committee of the CCP in which it called Nixon a "frenzied anti-Communist". The letter stated:
{{Blockquote
| text = We trust you will understand the reason for the delay in our reply. This was because your decision came as a surprise to us and it was taken without any preliminary consultation between us on this question, so that we would be able to express and thrash out our opinions. This, we think, could have been useful, because preliminary consultations, between close friends, determined co-fighters against imperialism and revisionism, are useful and necessary, and especially so, when steps which, in our opinion, have a major international effect and repercussions are taken.

...&nbsp;Considering the Communist Party of China as a sister party and our closest co-fighter, we have never hidden our views from it. That is why on this major problem which you put before us, we inform you that we consider your decision to receive Nixon in Beijing as incorrect and undesirable, and we do not approve or support it. It will also be our opinion that Nixon's announced visit to China will not be understood or approved of by the peoples, the revolutionaries and the communists of different countries.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1982a|pp=666–668}}.</ref>
}}
The result of this criticism was a message from the Chinese leadership in 1971 in which it stated that Albania could not depend on an indefinite flow of aid from China, and in 1972 Albania was advised to "curb its expectations about further Chinese contributions to its economic development".{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=90}} By 1972, Hoxha wrote in his diary ''Reflections on China'' that China was no longer a socialist country, instead aligning itself with the interests of a powerful nation that prioritized pragmatic relations over socialist principles.<ref name=":1">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1979a|p=656}}</ref> In 1973, he wrote that the Chinese leaders had "cut off their contacts" with Albania, reducing their interactions to merely formal diplomatic exchanges. While China maintained its economic agreements, Hoxha remarked that their "initial ardor" had waned.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1979b|p=41}}</ref>

In response, trade with COMECON (although trade with the Soviet Union was still blocked) and Yugoslavia grew. Trade with Third World nations was $0.5&nbsp;million in 1973, but $8.3&nbsp;million in 1974. Trade rose from 0.1% to 1.6%.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|pp=98–99}} Following Mao's death on 9 September 1976, Hoxha remained optimistic about Sino-Albanian relations, but in August 1977, [[Hua Guofeng]], the new leader of China, stated that Mao's [[Three Worlds Theory]] would become official foreign policy. Hoxha viewed this as a way for China to justify having the U.S. as the "secondary enemy" while viewing the Soviet Union as the main one, thus allowing China to trade with the U.S. He condemned this as a "diabolical plan" for China to position itself as a superpower at the head of the "third world" and the "non-aligned world."<ref name=":1" />

From 30 August to 7 September 1977, Tito visited [[Beijing]] and was welcomed by the Chinese leadership. Following this, the PLA declared that China was now a revisionist state akin to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and that Albania was the only Marxist–Leninist state on Earth. Hoxha stated:

{{Blockquote
| text = The Chinese leaders are acting like the leaders of a 'great state'. They think, 'The Albanians fell out with the Soviet Union because they had us, and if they fall with us, too, they will go back to the Soviets,' therefore they say, 'Either with us or the Soviets, it is all the same, the Albanians are done for.' But to hell with them! We shall fight against all this trash, because we are Albanian Marxist–Leninists and on our correct course we shall always triumph!<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1979b|p=107}}</ref>
}}

On 13 July 1978, China announced that it was cutting off all of its aid to Albania. For the first time in modern history, Albania did not have a major ally nor a major trading partner.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |date=12 July 1978 |title=China Said to End Aid to Albania; Once-Close Ally Now Harsh Critic |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/12/archives/new-jersey-pages-china-said-to-end-aid-to-albania-onceclose-ally.html |access-date=2025-01-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boriçi |first=Dr.Sc. Gjon |date=2016-07-27 |title=The fall of the Albanian - Chinese Relations 1971-1978 |url=http://iliriapublications.org/index.php/iir/article/view/218 |journal=ILIRIA International Review |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=107 |doi=10.21113/iir.v6i1.218 |issn=2365-8592 |doi-access=free |archive-date=18 January 2021 |access-date=26 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118002411/http://iliriapublications.org/index.php/iir/article/view/218 |url-status=dead }}</ref>