Sarah Paine — How Russia sabotaged China's rise
Military historian Sarah Paine argues Stalin deliberately sabotaged China’s rise across a century through at least 10 documented interventions, delaying China’s unification and development by generations.
- Russia seized territory from China’s sphere larger than all US land east of the Mississippi, via treaties from 1858 through Outer Mongolia’s detachment in the 1920s.
- Stalin ordered Chinese communists to stay in the United Front with nationalists, knowing Chiang Kai-shek would massacre them — then used their deaths to defeat Trotsky domestically.
- After WWII, the USSR stripped Manchuria of 83% of electrical equipment, 86% of mining, and 82% of cement machinery, then handed the military stockpile to Mao as leverage.
- Stalin saw the Korean War as a low-risk strategy to simultaneously weaken the US and delay China’s rise by fighting to the last Chinese soldier.
- China detonated its first nuclear weapon in 1964 specifically to escape Soviet bondage; Mao immediately demanded return of all seized territories, triggering the 1969 border war.
- After the Sino-Soviet split, the USSR asked the US permission to nuke China — when refused, asked about conventional strikes on Chinese nuclear sites — and was refused again.
- Paine draws a direct parallel to today: Russia is now the dependent party, with China dribbling aid while extracting discounted resources, mirroring how Stalin used China in Korea.
- Paine warns the US against isolating China without allies, quoting Pericles: continental empires with huge industrial bases cannot be managed alone — gang up or lose.
2025-10-31 · Watch on YouTube
