The dissolution of the Soviet Union represented a key turning point for China, forcing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to carefully reflect on the causes of the Soviet collapse and the responsibility of Mikhail Gorbachev in it. In particular the Chinese communist leadership placed at the center of its political and ideological analysis some main questions: what were the fundamental causes of the end of the Soviet Union?; what role did the Soviet leader have in this process?; and finally: how can we prevent a similar fate for the CCP? In the following pages we will try to highlight the essential aspects of the political and historiographical debate that has developed on this issue in China since 1992 until Gorbachev’s death in 2022.
