[Raellus]

Free League didn't seem very receptive to community input regarding its Alpha & Beta Europe timelines, so I'm not sure if they would be open making a community-made global timeline official. As it now stands, it's up to each individual Ref to do their own world-building, beyond NW Europe. Even if FL does release some sort of official global timeline- with or without community input- it's still ultimately up to up to individual Refs.

That said, creating a global timeline is a fun thought exercise, and if some Refs decide to use it, then it's a worthwhile one as well.

In the timeline that I've been tinkering with, the USSR's survival/revival is predicated, in part, on close economic ties with the PRC. The Soviets sell energy to the Chinese, to fuel the latter's rapid economic growth; they also sell weapons to the Chinese, who have been essentially cut off from western sources after the Tiananmen Square massacre. This infusion of hard currency from China keeps the Soviet economy afloat, and helps keep the Soviet military in fighting shape until WW3 begins.

With the USA engaged in a full-scale conventional war in Europe, and a fresh infusion of current gen Soviet-made weaponry, China decides that the time is right to retake Taiwan. They gamble that the US won't intervene militarily. The PRC also encourages the DPRK to attempt a reunification-by-force with the ROK, giving the US something else to worry about/deal with.

So the T2k 4e relationship between the USSR and PRC is kind of like the Axis "alliance" of WW2- the Germans and Japanese were nominal allies, with the same enemies, but did not really coordinate strategic operations.

I can also see the relationship souring when the Soviets stop shipping oil and gas to the PRC (because they need it for total war).

-