I’m finishing the last episode of S5 now, and I’ll be fully caught up on this series. Between Afghanistan and Cambodia, China’s willingness to play ball with the US and its agenda is frustrating to learn.
It leaves me wanting to learn more about the Sino/Soviet split. The way this division manifested really aligned China with some dark forces, it would seem.
I also imagine the process of “normalization” with the US plays a huge role in the way this history unfolds as well.
It makes me wonder what they knew about The Khmer Rouge’s operations. I was left with the impression, based on how the history was laid out, that China was aware of just how aggressive and bloody the Khmer Rouge’s policies were.
Something about that stretch of time between 79 and 89 seems to have resulted in a bunch of weird geopolitical stuff.
Need to finish this episode, I guess.
Some real “The enemy of my enemy” type logic on display for China at the time. I feel like a Blowback season on The Sino/Soviet Split might be interesting, but then again, probably a highly covered topic already. It just runs right through so much of the previous seasons though, that in some ways it would act as a thread stitching many of these seasons together.
I feel like “the enemy of my enemy” happens a lot on the world stage, especially during the Cold War. And I get it. But it still sucks.