This paper analyzes the geopolitical security situation in China in 1950s and its possible reasons.

China's security dilemma in 1950s was mainly caused by objective factors beyond China's control, including the Cold War and traditional geopolitical factors, historical factors and ideological factors.

Cold war and traditional geopolitical factors. When New China was founded, the Cold War pattern was fixed, and the objective international environment and China's own factors inevitably involved China, making it difficult for China to avoid confrontation with the superpowers. Considering their hegemony in Eurasia, especially in the Western Pacific and East Asia, neither superpower wants China to be strong. From the geopolitical point of view, the threat of the United States and the Soviet Union to China is a continuation of the crisis in the northwest frontier and the crisis in the southeast coast in modern times, and even can be regarded as a continuation of the ancient border troubles (including the threat of nomadic people in the north and the invasion of Korea and the southeast coast by Japanese invaders) under the same geographical conditions and new historical conditions. Some neighboring small and medium-sized countries share the same interests with the United States and the Soviet Union on how to deal with the rise of China. There are two backgrounds. First, because of the national strength gap between China and the United States and the Soviet Union, many neighboring countries had to choose between the two superpowers because of their own interests under the background of group politics prevailing during the Cold War. Second, the considerations of neighboring small and medium-sized countries are different from those of superpowers, which involves historical factors.

Historical factors. First of all, the most basic national conditions of developing countries, mainland countries and agricultural nations are historical facts that cannot be changed for quite some time. Many difficulties in China's security are closely related to these basic national conditions. For example, the lack of offshore sea power. Secondly, there used to be international relations in East Asia with China as the core, tributary relations as the content and hierarchical relations as the feature. However, due to various complicated reasons, especially the rise of nationalism in modern Asia, this relationship is generally misunderstood by neighboring countries as China's hegemony and strongly encouraged by the West and the Soviet Union. Thirdly, as mentioned above, the existence of the border issue is also a problem left over from history. Modern border system is the result of sovereign countries and their territorial systems. As a big country with many neighboring countries and a former semi-colonial country whose territory has been eroded, the existence of a large number of territorial disputes and its negative impact on national security are inevitable. For example, the Soviet Union was particularly worried that China would uncover old historical accounts and then make territorial claims.

Ideological factors. China's choice of socialism is a historical necessity, which determines the objectivity of ideological factors. The objective existence and function of ideology in the bad relationship between China and the United States are well known. One of the reasons why some neighboring small and medium-sized countries participate in the anti-China encirclement is that they are afraid of China's export revolution. However, ideology is not a purely objective factor, and China's own positive but not always wise policy choices are also part of this factor. The twists and turns in Sino-Soviet relations are proof of this.