Why didn't China be a part of the Warsaw Pact in 1955 since it was a communist nation. I know about the Sino-Soviet split in 1956 but this was before it.
Another follow up question- Why other countries could potentially be a part of the Pact in 1955 but didn't, also tell why please.
Danke. :)
The main reason that China did not join the Warsaw Pact was that the pact was formed specifically as a Central/Eastern European counter-alliance against NATO, which had just inducted West Germany a week prior to the Warsaw Pact's formation.
Now yes, China was (and still is) a communist country, as were the member's of the Warsaw Pact. However, it is a mistake to assume that Communist countries were monolithic and that any Communist nation would share the exact same agenda, concerns, and ideals as other Communist nations (in fairness, this was a common belief at the time among many foreign policy and defense experts in the West). One needs to look no further than Yugoslavia under Marshal Tito to see this in action in Europe, but that's a different story.
Anyways, the primary reason for China's non-inclusion in the Warsaw Pact was the Pact specifically stated that it's main goal was to create a European collective security, primarily in response to NATO's formation and recent induction of West Germany. China's concerns at the time were primarily regional (for example they had just helped North Korea repulse the U.S. led invasion of North Korea and forced the US/SK/UN into a stalemate which continues to this day). So they were not nearly as concerned with the induction of West Germany into NATO as the USSR and other Soviet satellite states were. Nor was the Soviet Union in any position to push the Chinese into joining the Warsaw Pact, since China at that time would be highly unlikely (whether it be by choice or ability) to intervene in Europe on the behalf of other Pact members and vice versa (with the exception of the Soviet Union) if any party invoked an Article 4.
With the Sino-Soviet Split beginning in it's earnest a year after the formation of the Warsaw Pact, this all but guaranteed that China would not become a member of the Warsaw Pact.
Sources:
Zubok, Vladislav A Failed Empire : the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev
Leffler, Melvyn For the Soul of Mankind : the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War