The alliance between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Soviet Union was formed as a result of mutual interests and the desire of both states to pursue their respective national imperatives and geopolitical. While China's historical experience and Marxist ideology have played a role in building these interests, the actions of the Chinese Community Party (CCP) reflect a general propensity to consolidate its power and secure the nascent republic. This essay will examine the multiple factors that influenced the Soviet alliance, including the relations between the PRC, the United States (US), and the Soviet Union, as well as the PRC's foreign policy and strategic objectives. Historical conceptions of Chinese culture and global standing have shaped the PRC's perspective. . Central to all this is Sino-centrism and its edict from heaven for dynastic China to spread civilization (Xinning 2001: 70). Imperial China's tributary system represented a “Pax Sinica” and the physical manifestation of Sino-centrism, with its success asserting Chinese cultural superiority (Y. Zhang 2001: 52). Instructive in this is Sino-centrism's similarity and conflict with America's Manifest Destiny, itself an articulation that Anglo-Saxon Americans are God's chosen people, with a superior culture and who are preordained to spread civilization among the inferior peoples (Hollander 2009: 169). PRC nationalism can be seen in part as a rejection of this competing mandate of heaven, linking China's decline to foreign intervention and adherence to unequal treaties that saw the loss of peripheral territories considered intrinsic to historical China (Kissinger 2011: 112). In this way, the formation of the People's Republic of China as a modern nation state is the resurgence of the Sino-... mid-paper... bloc (Goldstein 1995: 50). Then, by allying with the Soviets, the PRC was able to improve the fundamental issues that posed an existential threat to their republic. It is difficult to conclude anything other than that the alliance between the PRC and the Soviet Union arose primarily out of necessity. Certainly, the common ideology and revolutionary nature of the CCP have enabled a collective understanding that has sometimes coalesced into shared goals. Even so, the PRC's actions suggest appeasement rather than genuine alignment with the Soviet Union. As a result, Beijing and Moscow appear reluctant allies, with a hint of a prisoner's dilemma in their alliance: each, but particularly the PRC, faces deleterious consequences by pursuing an independent path. By cooperating, the PRC was able to build its own state and counterbalance the perceived threat from the United States.