Why would the lack of a Communist China result in a early collapse of the Soviet Union?

I've asked around what could've happened had the Nationalists won the Chinese Civil War and one of the most interesting answers I got was that it could've resulted in a collapse of the Soviet Union as early as the 1970s.

Why do some people think that the lack of a Communist China could result in such a major geopolitical shakeup happening earlier than it was supposed to?
 
Was the collapse of the Soviet Union geopolitical in nature? I’ve always thought of it as an inability to betray the Fordist compromise while remaining the Soviet Union. So fundamentally a workplace relations, wages and conditions issue.

Was this “due to fail” at a particular time? Again no. Prior to the Polish coup there was always the possibility of another 56 or 68 generalizing. The 1925-1933 crisis was resolved, at enormous social cost. The 1963-1989 crises were resolved, at enormous social cost historically: a pathway which retains low margin Fordism and a nomenklatura was available; consider Juche as a navigation that doesn’t introduce post-Fordism.

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It is arguable that the PRC was a double drain on the Soviet Union: expensive investment then disruption in the split. Just like the Yugoslavia split as economic disruption with the 48-53 crisis only greater. Even as a periphery to dump and then write off Soviet capital it was unnecessary: they dumped and wrote off internally.

So no.

Sam R.
 
I've asked around what could've happened had the Nationalists won the Chinese Civil War and one of the most interesting answers I got was that it could've resulted in a collapse of the Soviet Union as early as the 1970s.

Why do some people think that the lack of a Communist China could result in such a major geopolitical shakeup happening earlier than it was supposed to?


It is true that the USSR and China became virtual enemies in the '60s. There were clashes in 1969, two decades before the collapse of the USSR. Still, things would've been much worse for Russia had the Nationalists won. Had that happened, from c 1949-91 China would've probably been a close ally of the West, able to obtain much more sophisticated weapons than in the OTL. A more formidable Chinese military, coupled with the costs of facing NATO, might've brought the USSR to the economic breaking point earlier than in the OTL.
 
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