

The us had nukes and actually showed the willingness to use it - twice. Meanwhile the Soviets were destroyed by war and didn’t have the largest economy in the world to bail them out.
Later under gorbi, the soviets became revisionists and actually thought they could live with the capitalists in peace (lol)
Its a stalling tactic and not giving the west a easy way to justify war. Especially relevant for modern prc.
Well they do now. The fact that people are ever more aware of facts like this is progress from ten years ago.