The Russia-China War and the Lin Piao Affair

It has been forgotten that in 1970 there were battles between Russia under Brezhnev and China under Mao. The Chinese were no match for the Red Army. Mao had been particularly irritated by the Soviet Communist Party disputing his ideological supremacy and turned   China away from the Socialist camp and invited Nixon to banquet in Peking. A fraction in the Chinese Party felt Mao was mad, and had to be eliminated.

Lin was in charge of defense in the Politburo. He wanted to build up the army. He believed that the US and Japan were China's major enemies. Mao turned against Lin who suddenly felt so insecure that took a plane to Moscow. The plane exploded in flight.

My point is that the Chinese dictatorial regime invites conspiracies. A dictatorship, historically, invites coups and golpes-de-estado. The world will never hear about internal tensions but they must exist today as then.