Half the Noodle

Many of the newer Cold War TL's feature a China which remains more evenly divided between the RoC and PRC, usually along the Yellow River.

Would the communist faction in such a divided China, controlling the modern territory of the PRC north of the Yellow River, be able to achieve the same 'Third Player' status as the PRC during the Cold War, and then the position of the next Big Bad Red in the post-Soviet world?

If such a thing is possible, please mention the specific regions and resources needed for such a situation to occur.
 
No, I don't think that they would be able to achieve a position anything like what the achieved IOTL. They simply wouldn't have the population base to maintain it. The population is mostly in China below the Yellow River.
 

(why the noodle??)
While the Chinese Northern Plain does support a large part of China's population, it's not much use lacking the hinterlands of the south; unless KMT China is severely reduced to a small portion(i.e. Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangzhou and Taiwan), it'll still be a large contender against the PRC.
 
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