Chinese-backed reliance on Sukarno led the PKI to ignore the coup that annihilated it

Evidence

Zhou En Lai’s announcement of a partnership with Sukarno-style Indonesian nationalism and the consequent eulogy for an undifferentiated ‘peace’ had the effect of signalling a peaceful road for Indonesian communism and a united front with Sukarno – which eventually contributed, of course, to the largest single bloodbath of communists in any military coup in history. It was the factor of Chinese guidance and the consequent complete reliance on Sukarno which led KPI to ignore the possibility of the coup even as it stared them in the face; in the event, the coup swept off Sukarno himself, along with some half a million of them. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 575

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the study of alliance dependency and miscalculation across the Cold War decolonization literature.