The People´s Republic of China´s relations with the two Cold War superpowers developed as the PRC rose as a communist power. The Cold War was a period of high tension and hostility between the Soviet Union and the Unites States, which developed after the Second World War and ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. The communist Chinese nation played an important role between the two, as the emerging superpower China ideologically was communist like the USSR, but mistrust and suspicion between the two largely shaped their relations. The US was the ideological enemy of the PRC, but their mistrust and suspicion had different outcomes, leading to closer diplomatic relations, as opposed to the Soviet Union and the PRC´s relations.