With a PoD not before the end of the Korean War, make the USA become friendly to the USSR and hostile to the PRC.
Kennedy lives as focuses on a joint US USSR space program. Joint attack on PRC Nuclear Program. K succeeded by Kosygin not Leanoid Prague spring tolerated. The checks are left alone.
The only way I can see this happening is if the USSR gets replaced by a leader that seeks a more favorable relationship with the US and China gets more hostile with the US and the West. Perhaps if the Gang of Four were to retain their power and somehow dispose their opponents (including Deng) and if someone like Kosygin takes over the USSR, then maybe that would do the trick.
Unlikely. China even today lacks the military piwer projection or soft power to truly constitute a threat to the US, more than fifty years later. At the time, the US rightfully viewed the USSR as the only potential threat to its interests and even its existence. China, by comparison, was barely even able to fight the US to a standstill in its own periphery.
With a PoD not before the end of the Korean War, make the USA become friendly to the USSR and hostile to the PRC.