P.R. China collapses postwar

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The other big professed communist state, the PRC, survives to this day

Was there a possibility that China could have collapsed in the latter half of the twentieth century?

What would the effects have been?
 
The best two scenarios for accomplishing something like this would either be an intensified Cultural Revolution (if such a thing is possible) leading to a more complete collapse than already occured, or alternately Deng Xiaoping and his faction not succeeding in their bid for power following Mao's death, as without Deng's economic reforms the PRC would likely have gone the route of the Soviet Union.
 
The real linchpin is the reforms. If they are allowed to occur, even without a Nixon visit (which they could), a Sino-US rapprochement is almost inevitable, merely delayed.
 
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