US-China relations are endlessly compared to a new "Cold War"—but I think we need more creative analogies. One analogy that I've been considering recently is less well known to Americans but is full of interesting parallels & differences:

The Sino-Soviet split.

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Reading Li Danhui & Yafeng Xia's excellent new book ( https://www.amazon.com/Mao-Sino-Soviet-Split-1959-1973-History/dp/149851166X), I began to consider parallels between these cases of deeply intertwined societies “splitting."

The Sino-Soviet split was a fitful process of tension, disentanglement, & recrimination. Sound familiar?

From the sharing & stealing of technology to the flows of students & scholars, China has benefited from its relationship with the U.S. as it benefited from massive Soviet technological & material support.

What we'd today call "hard decoupling" happened then, but it was painful.

On the human toll of the split, I found Elizabeth McGuire's recent book to be quite moving: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Heart-Chinese-Communists-Revolution/dp/0190640553

I think back to it when I read @yangyang_cheng's essential essays on being a scientist between the two worlds, or this @ChinaFile essay: https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/me-breakdown-us-china-relations-personal

But back to geopolitics: In the Chinese view, both superpowers sought at different times to shape & even control China’s future in ways that the CCP eventually deemed unacceptable.

The USSR was sensitive & resistant to Mao's bids for leadership of the world communist movement.

But many feel that shifts in China's *domestic* politics were the decisive drivers—whether Mao's leftward turn or Xi's more assertive & authoritarian turn.

(These shifts aren't the same, of course, but they underscore how much CCP "domestic politics" shape "external" behavior.)

Of course, the differences between these cases are numerous & obvious. The CCP & CPSU’s foundational linkage was based upon shared communist ideals, & the two countries are geographical neighbors, among other factors altogether different from the U.S.-China relationship...

The comparison is partial at best. But when so many are weary of the "new Cold War" meme, I hope this stirs some discussion.

We still debate when the Sino-Soviet split started—& we'll be debating the same about the Sino-American split for years to come. https://twitter.com/zeithistoriker/status/1282904955918024704