Indeed, instead of adopting the true Soviet independent model of Israel to support, we adopted the Soviet collaborating Chinese detente pipe dream... All because size mattered more than vital language, ie. Corruption.
But this is not over yet. The Chinese population is getting older, in a worst inflation case nightmare scenario of increasing population but shrinking workforce.
If the China invasion threat is not real, the economic chaos and castle of cards that the Chinese investment for the future certainly is the disaster to come.
That doesn't fit my recollection, which was that splitting China off from the "communist bloc" would weaken the Soviet empire. It wasn't so much about what we would gain as what they would lose.