AH challenge - 21st century geopolitical antagonism & harsh rhetoric between China and Russia

raharris1973

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POD must be no earlier than January 1990.

In OTL, Moscow-Beijing relations have been on the upswing since
Gorbachev's visit in May 1989. Russia and China do joint military
exercises and are members of the Shanghai Pact, a regional security
organization with Central Asian states. I would still find it hard to
believe they would actually go to war on each other's behalf, so that
aspect of the 1950s relationship isn't back, but in many respects,
the relations have never been better.

The nearly thirty years of harshness from the 60s through the 80s, was perceived as a permanent
fixture of the international scene at the time & the natural state of Russo-Chinese
relations, but has totally receded into the background since 1990.

Meanwhile, more often than not the Chinese and Russians find common interests on the international stage and both have harsher rhetoric towards the United States and have more geopolitical antagonism towards the United States than towards each other. So how could we change this to make Sino-Russian mutual relations with each other at least as bad as those of each with the USA (which was really the prevailing situation in the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, China and the USA generally got on *better* with each other than each did with the USSR)

So, the challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to plausibly get
crappy Chinese-Russian relations by 2005. They can be anything from
Greece-Turkey crappy, all the way to war crappy.

More points the closer you get to war though.
Show trimmed content
 
POD must be no earlier than January 1990.

In OTL, Moscow-Beijing relations have been on the upswing since
Gorbachev's visit in May 1989. Russia and China do joint military
exercises and are members of the Shanghai Pact, a regional security
organization with Central Asian states. I would still find it hard to
believe they would actually go to war on each other's behalf, so that
aspect of the 1950s relationship isn't back, but in many respects,
the relations have never been better.

The nearly thirty years of harshness from the 60s through the 80s, was perceived as a permanent
fixture of the international scene at the time & the natural state of Russo-Chinese
relations, but has totally receded into the background since 1990.

Meanwhile, more often than not the Chinese and Russians find common interests on the international stage and both have harsher rhetoric towards the United States and have more geopolitical antagonism towards the United States than towards each other. So how could we change this to make Sino-Russian mutual relations with each other at least as bad as those of each with the USA (which was really the prevailing situation in the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, China and the USA generally got on *better* with each other than each did with the USSR)

So, the challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to plausibly get
crappy Chinese-Russian relations by 2005. They can be anything from
Greece-Turkey crappy, all the way to war crappy.

More points the closer you get to war though.
Show trimmed content
Just get Russia or China to put a specific weapon near the border that the other side disapproves of. This in turn kicks off a military buildup, which in turn sours relations. The Russians placed their newest weapons near the Chinese border IOTL because their relations weren't exactly great up until the takeover of Crimea and resulting sanctions by the EU and US. Only then did the Russians seek better relations with China out of necessity.
 
Easy:
See China as bigger problem then Russia and investment which ended up in China would go to Russia. Alt Russia is more tough on crime and Corruption former KGB is paid and it cracks on crime in big way. Alt Putin emerges faster and he implements sound economic reformes faster.
China gets caught dealing with Clinton and he gets impeached.
 
Get someone other than Putin in charge. Putin wants to conquer Eastern Europe. However, that kind of expansionism isn't just related to Putin. There are many Russians in government who share that view. And therein lies the difficulty of doing so.
 
Maybe the Americans decide to focus on stopping China's rise (so that the US stay the unchallenged #1) and therefor make concessions to the Russians. The Russians gladly accept the comprimise and enter the American camp (maybe even the NATO), and America + Russia are now working against China.
 
I think it'd be easier for China to be on better terms with Russian enemies, since China won't hate Russia for joining NATO/the EU. China sells a lot of its stuff to the EU/countries in NATO, and this isn't an obstacle.
 
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