SSR Of China

If someone besides Mao gets into power in China, is it possible for the PRC to peacefully become part of the USSR?

If so, could The Soviet Union gain the upper hand in the Cold War due to their newly acquired massive reserves of manpower and resources?
 
Absolutely not. Whatever else he was, Mao was always a staunch Chinese nationalist, and the CCP's entire legitimacy rests on the narrative that it was Mao and the Communist Party who rescued China from its century of humiliation at the hands of foreign imperialists. Not to mention that the Soviets wouldn't have even wanted a vast non-Slavic SSR dominating the rest. Had the USSR and China unified, Han Chinese would have been an absolute majority, and the USSR would have slowly become Sinicized rather than the other way around.
 
You could have the USSR annex parts of China though; such as Xinjiang and Manchuria (the former is much more likely than the latter, IMO).
 
Well in 1945, if Stalin is less confident Mao can win the civil war (pretty reasonable) you could have him pull the classic Cold War trick of not leaving his occupation zone, namely Manchuria. Chang Kai-Shek will moan but he can't really do anything. This could then possibly become the Manchu SSR.

Alternatively Xinjiang, say if the Nationalists win and Stalin wants some kind of spoil, say hello to the Uyghur SSR. That's certainly easier as the region was basically run by the Soviets for decades.
 
Top