More PRC cover ops in the Cold War

Could the PRC have done more to destabilize certain nations during the Cold War against the Soviets and the Americans? They surely did fund some Maoist revolutionary groups. Was there any place in particular where they could have had a success, that is a pro-China regime coming into power after beating the Soviet-funded and U.S.-funded puppets?
 
How good was the PRC's intelligence service? I was under the impression that they were a pretty third-rate bunch mostly operating in expatriate Chinese communities, and only badly there. Of course that could just be what Western writers believed. But I don't think there was much of a chance outside of areas with strong Chinese communities unless much more money and manpower was expended. That leaves - pretty much Southeast Asia. The Chinese already control North Korea, and a takeover of Mongolia, South Korea, Japan or Taiwan is pretty much illusory. I do believe they were pretty influential in Cambodia, Laos, Nepal and Indonesia at some point. The Philippines might make a good POD. I don't see Singapore or Malaysia falling to the Maoists.

Did Brunei have a sizeable expat Chinese population? That might give the West a good hard shock, what with all the oil gone.

Or could anyonbe envision a stronger Chinese involvement among the Euro-Maoist movement? I don't think their intelligence could hae handled the volatile political culture of Europe's wooly left fringe in the 60s and 70s (not to mention the USSR might take exception at their presence), but such contacts could be very valuable for destabilisation purposes.
 
Hm, well I was thinking more along the lines of the Chinese not giving up aiding Maoist revolutionary factions and political parties after Mao's death. More history here.

Sometime I'll try to see if I can dig up a list of PRC-supported groups. But what I had in mind was the PRC significantly giving more aid to Maoist groups in India, and in Peru (Shining Path), and so on.

I don't want to make this into one of my "What if the Non-Aligned Movement became a genuine third side?" because no one thus far has really answered with a plausible idea on how it could happen. However, I'd still like to mention the Three Worlds theory that Mao had.

Mao: Who belongs to the First World?

Kaunda: I think it ought to be world of exploiters and imperialists.

Mao: And the Second World?

Kaunda: Those who have become revisionists.

Mao: I hold that the U.S. and the Soviet Union belong to the First World. The middle elements, such as Japan, Europe, Australia and Canada, belong to the Second World. We are the Third World.

...

Mao: The Third World is very populous.

Kaunda: Precisely so.

Mao: All Asian countries, except Japan, belong to the Third World. All of Africa and also Latin America belong to the Third World.
 
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Hendryk

Banned
There were also Maoist insurgencies in Latin America, the most notorious one being the Shining Path in Peru. One may imagine the PRC making a more deliberate effort of creating revolutionary situations in the Andean countries, as part of a strategy of diverting the attention of the US to its own backyard, or simply as an end in itself.
 
There were also Maoist insurgencies in Latin America, the most notorious one being the Shining Path in Peru. One may imagine the PRC making a more deliberate effort of creating revolutionary situations in the Andean countries, as part of a strategy of diverting the attention of the US to its own backyard, or simply as an end in itself.

How would that aid be provided? Mao's China wasn't exactly open to the world or a major trading partner for the west. Moiney copuld be sent, and perhaps the odd military training arranged, but was the flow of goods and people from China to the Andes large enough to hide any larger amount of either stuff or operatives? I would think that before the late 70s, Chinese contacts should have been easy to police for the regimes in question.

Of course, the Soviet reaction would be interesting. WWFD?
 
Remember, the PRC was funding Maoists and non-Soviet affiliated communist groups as early as the 1960s, when they funneled aid to different groups in Angola.
 
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