Introduction. China has conducted a gap analysis of the causes of the break-up of the Soviet Union. The findings influence Chinese future policy-making, which should serve China’s modernization. But Chinese political scientists’ findings have limits of applicability beyond which they lose relevance and credibility.
Materials and methods. The research is based on publications of political scientists, speeches of Russian and Chinese officials, scientific articles of Russian and Chinese authors.
Results of the study. In the article different viewpoints are compared. The motives and circumstances that led Chinese researchers to exaggerate some factors of the failures of the USSR and to silence others were identified. A complete picture hasbeen built by explaining the reasons for changes of China’s foreign policy in the modern world.
Discussion. The main trend of changes in the world is the growing contradictions between the United States and China. That is why the main question of the article is whether the USSR was wrong in implementing its foreign policy in the hostile environment. Probably, these so-called mistakes allowed the USSR to withstand the pressure of the West Countries for a long time. China, which may to be under such pressure due to the containment policy, is forced not only to change its foreign policy, but also to reconsider the Soviet Union’s foreign policy, which was seen to be full of mistakes earlier.
Conclusion. Earlier conclusions of Chinese political scientists about the failures of the USSR’s foreign policy have limits of applicability. The change of China’s regional status to a global one, the possible rebuilding of the existing world order from a unipolar world to a bipolar one with centers in Beijing and Washington and the pоssible repetition of the Cold War scenario, make us to rethink the positive and negative experience of the Soviet Union’s foreign policy.
Key words: China, the USSR, Russia, national interest, Cold War.
10.56429/2414-4894-2021-36-2-62-74