You act as if there's no evidence of simultaneously developing productive forces and supporting proxies abroad. Deng was happy to arm and fund communist movements in SEA until Vietnam requested that he stop in 1988.
BS! I'm in SEA. I know what happened to the communist struggles here. Chinese sponsorship for communist movements in SEA was effectively dead by the late 1970s. It decisively ended with the Sino-Vietnam War of 1979. And you said Vietnam "requested" Deng to stop it in 1988? LoL! Vietnam!? That very nation who is in a state of war with China from 1979 to 1991. Of course they would accuse China of spreading their "toxic Maoism" around. And you would trust their accusations against China during those times? Do you even know what the hell you're writing?
Not to mention by opening up the markets Deng let in foreign influence, corruption, and temptation just like how you lambasted the Soviets for. So is economic liberalization a poison pill or not? Pick a lane and stay in it.
LoL! You idiot! That economic opening up steered China away from the fate of the Soviet Union. All that poison pill from the West that you've talked about slipping into China? Yeah, that was dealt with decisively in 1989. Without that economic opening up, you wouldn't have the great China of today that you were so eager on crap on for not starting WW3 to soothe your militant ego.
And how long do you think the current circumstances will last? A rational opponent will do anything to sway China's friends to their side. Unfortunately for China, it imposes a handicap on itself that forbids the underhanded tactics its adversary uses to great effect. War, hot or cold, is neither clean nor fair.
EDIT: Also "friends" is a laughable concept. How many of China's "friends" are gonna stick their necks out for China when shit hits the fan? How many "friends" will stay in China's sphere if the US and EU pull their heads out of their asses and present a better deal than China's. Never forget that Russia was trying to normalize ties with Europe before this entire Ukraine fiasco. The only "friends" you can truly count on are those you can leverage and control.
You talk about China needing to "win friends" from the West. And then you argue against yourself that those "friends" are not loyal to China. You've already answered why China shouldn't go out there and become big brother for everybody. Because most countries, even communists ones like Vietnam have fickle loyalties.
China's management of "friends" today is far more sustainable than that traditional Cold War style bloc hegemony. That method had failed the Soviet Union because the Western economic hegemony was too powerful for it to confront. China learnt that lesson and is confronting the West today in a way that truly hurts them. By denying them absolutely economic hegemony. You have failed to learn from history yet again.
