I was just reading an article about Chinese soft power abroad (specifically in New Zealand). The article said “And after Premier Li Keqiang visited New Zealand in 2017, a Chinese diplomat favourably compared New Zealand-China relations to the level of closeness China had with Albania in the early 1960s.”
Why was the China-Albania relationship so close? How did this impact Albania, and what caused this close relationship to end? I’m also interested on any impacts this had on International Relations
Find the article here: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/article/magic_weapons.pdf
In brief, Albania became a communist country lead by Enver Hoxha after World War 2 and was a close ally of the Soviet Union under Stalin during the split between the USSR and Tito's Yugoslavia. It can be argued whether that happened primarily because of ideological concerns (Tito pushing for Yugoslavia to be independent of Soviet foreign policy and eventually becoming a member of the non-aligned movement rather than the Warsaw Pact and opening up to a limited extent to western trade and tourism) or because of realpolitik concerns (Albania feeling threatened by Tito's pan-Yugoslav ideology and being concerned that without Soviet backing they might be forcibly integrated by Yugoslavia).
After Stalin's death and the end of the resulting power struggle, Khrushchev renounced Stalin's policies and began some political reconciliation with Yugoslavia, while in most of the satellite Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, Stalinist leaders like Rakosi in Hungary and Bierut in Poland were being pushed out. This kind of left Hoxha and Albania out on a limb, and they rejected de-Stalinization and denounced Khrushchev as a revisionist.
Looking for new friends, they found China, who had taken a similar anti-Khrushchev and pro-Stalin position on the matter in the Sino-Soviet split, and a strong political and trade relationship between China and Albania developed.
This relationship worsened and ultimately ended when China started to develop closer ties to the US and other non-communist countries in the 70s, with Nixon's visit to China, the adoption of China's "Three World Theory" which grouped all countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America together as a bloc of countries oppressed and exploited by colonialism forming the base of the communist revolution rather than the traditional communist view of a working-class proletariat in every country doing so.
As the final nail in the coffin, Mao died and after a power struggle was replaced by Deng Xiaoping who was seen by Albania as a revisionist reformer in the mold of Khrushchev.
This led to Albania fully closing itself off from China as well as all other communist countries and attempting a policy of autarky in the late 70s and 80s, which led to a collapse of the Albanian economy.
Part of this can be answered by my answer here! At least on why Albania ended up siding with China in the Sino-Soviet split.