Isn’t the worst socialism still better than the best capitalism? Why try to destroy “revisionist” socialism when you have capitalism to destroy? Wouldn’t it be easier to fix a revisionist socialist country than trying to convince a capitalist one to be socialist?
Maybe. In one Chinese textbook I read, the author routinely criticized the USSR’s policies in the way it enforced socialism in other countries, usually enforcing a vision of socialism of specifically Russian origin and oppressing local socialist movements who wanted to tailor socialism to their own material conditions. The Chinese did not like this kind of domination and were fearful of it because they did not want to become a Soviet puppet. I think the Soviets could have potentially made decisions to show it was less interested in domination, but I also do think it is fair to say the Chinese could have been less paranoid as well. It’s hard for me to specifically pick a side because both Mao and Khrushchev did/said some unhinged things at times.
Which are some of the unhinged things they have said?
There were definitely things that happened on both sides that exacerbated the issue. The Chinese were very upset for example when Khrushchev made a deal with the US to specifically try to stop China from getting a nuclear weapon, which they needed for their sovereignty. The Soviets not only pulled all joint research with China per US request but even burned all their research in order to try and prevent the Chinese from recovering it and building the bomb. This was a bit slap in the face to China and sewed the seeds for distrust. Mao’s response to Khrushchev were not very reasonable either, Mao once equated Khrushchev to Adolf Hitler which seems a bit ridiculous imo.