What motivated the USSR to assist China with the development of Nuclear Weapons? Ie, How did this benefit the USSR?
Why would the USSR want China to have this technology during the 1950s and early 1960s? What did they get out of this transfer of technology? What could possibly be the strategic and political reasoning behind providing such strategic technology to a neighbour country.
The reasons I can think of are that China was one of the most prominent Communist countries and the USSR had an interest in seeing that Communism succeeded and spread, therefore having a nuclear China could assure its longevity(avoid foreign attacks and occupation) and maybe assist internal/domestic stability? Also maybe China having nuclear weapons would cause friction with the West and drive China towards the USSR, to avoid China being an adversary by giving them a common enemy(the west).