askchapo

Unironically Nixon Goes To China. This was part of a larger normalization of US-Communist relations throughout the world.

Also, throughout the 90s and 00s there was a persistent belief that China was "liberalizing" and they would one day become a Capitalist Democracy like the rest of us. There are shades of End Of History that influenced this thinking, and it wasn't broken until the mid 10s. Here's The Economist admitting as much in 2018, and probably the only admission of being wrong by the publication.

Not since Mao Zedong has a Chinese leader wielded so much power so openly. This is not just a big change for China (see article), but also strong evidence that the West’s 25-year bet on China has failed.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West welcomed the next big communist country into the global economic order. Western leaders believed that giving China a stake in institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would bind it into the rules-based system set up after the second world war (see Briefing). They hoped that economic integration would encourage China to evolve into a market economy and that, as they grew wealthier, its people would come to yearn for democratic freedoms, rights and the rule of law.

It was a worthy vision, which this newspaper shared, and better than shutting China out. China has grown rich beyond anybody’s imagining. Under the leadership of Hu Jintao, you could still picture the bet paying off. When Mr Xi took power five years ago China was rife with speculation that he would move towards constitutional rule. Today the illusion has been shattered. In reality, Mr Xi has steered politics and economics towards repression, state control and confrontation.

EDIT: I forgot to mention it, but several other significant events precipitated the current China.

1. Vietnam and the loss for the US was the nail in the coffin for hard military power against communism in the Western mind.
2. the Sino-Soviet split, where the US thought to drive a wedge in international socialism by partnering with China through soft power. This was part of the broader diplomatic normalization between the West and Communism I mention above, where hard military power gave way to soft diplomatic/economic power and influence in the western thought.
3. -thought implementing market reforms that the west mistook as moving towards Capitalism.
4. The fall of the Soviet Union, that itself birthed the End of History thinking, came with it the beginnings of the thought that China would follow the same path.

All of these factors led to the western 'certainty' of China going down the path of Capitalist Democracy.

Get the west addicted on your produce of their design

Working on your own produce as a side hustle

When Stalin abandoned internationalism and adopted socialism in one country (this is an incredibly broad generalization of events bordering on the ahistorical but please bear with me for the sake of brevity) it became possible for another nation to take a socialist developmentalist line without needing to support the ussr.

The history of Chinas post ww2 20th century is one of threading that needle. They did a pretty good job.

The most interesting and telling thing will be the Chinese governments actions in the next ten years. Will they make the same mistakes as the ussr did or will they chart a different course as America tries to align itself against a new communist bloc.

China avoided getting attacked like the USSR because of the USSR. The US was focused on it and China was viewed as a useful tool to split communists and harm the USSR. The sino-soviet split helped China survive at the expense of the USSR.

After the fall of the USSR it was Deng's reforms that continued to keep China alive. The capitalists thought they would end China in the longterm and they couldn't resist the vast wealth they could make from investing into this growth market of 1billion+ people. This incentive continues to be the reason China is not simply isolated on trade, there are thousands of capitalists making too much money from China and they do not support going against China as it would hurt their income.

You ever look at the wiki entries "belligerents" section for the cold war post sino-soviet split and you start seeing the Soviet Union on one side and U.S/NATO and the PRC on the other?

It helps to get the Great Satan economically dependent on your exports, exports which supply nearly every part of the US economy and the flow of which would be halted if they attempt any regime change fuckery

Jesus, did no one study history? It's not nukes, not even close.

There's literally too many things to list. China is massively powerful because of a enormous litany of reasons.

Let's start with social media. Way before USA realized social media could be a national security issue, China blocked US social media. At the time we complained it was a free speech issue, now we know that social media is being used by western nations as propaganda tools, Arab spring anyone? Good thing China blocked that shit.

Another thing China did was antagonize USA to see what they would cut off. Before Chips, it was the Wolfe act that blocked China from NASA. China took that opportunity and now is the only nation with a space station that isn't falling out of the sky.

Now we are seeing China implementing Sun Tzu's win without fighting. Basically if you keep antagonizing your opponent, they'll eventually waste all their resources to compete with you. Thus, winning without firing a shot.

So yeah, it's a huge mix of strategies.

It's mostly due to the sino soviet split, doing business with China and not attacking them was an orientation that (successfully) undermined the socialist bloc

• Get nukes

• Pretend to be besties with The Great Satan

• Got nukes
• Stuck to the plan