Sarah Paine

Stalin thinks this is great.

And it's going to retard Chinese development.

It's also because China is so isolated.

By this war, it has no international friends, but Russia.

It's going to tie China to Russia ever more firmly and give Russia a breathing space to rebuild after World War II, while its Western enemies are wasting time in Korea.

So...

If you put it all together, Chinese Civil War, Korean War, of Russia's on-and-off aid, on-and-off-again aid to different sides in the Civil War, his double-dealing with Bundham, and what happened with Ataman Golia and the Manchurian industrial base, Stalin's advice to Mao to halt at the Yangtze, and then he's fighting to the last Chinese in Korea, this is all consistent with the Second Rule of Continental Empire, no great power neighbors.

All right, once Stalin dies, finest day of his life, there's never as strong a leader in Russia again.

And by this time, Mao has figured out that the Russians don't want a strong China.

He has to bide his time for a while, but he understands what is going on.

And Mao has a growing list of grapes.

It's not only he didn't like Stalin's tributary treatment, but also Mao thinks, with his resume, that he should become...

the leader of international communism and Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev.

It's like, no way.

And Khrushchev does not have remotely Mao's resume.

Mao has just put together a continent by reunifying China.

That's not remotely what Khrushchev's ever been able to do.

And Mao also can't stand

either Khrushchev's domestic or foreign policy.

Domestically, Khrushchev is all about desinhalization.