The counterfactual was not to imprison him in the first place. That was what the orignal article : https://danieltan.weblog.lol/2026/05/americas-greatest-strate

The counterfactual was not to imprison him in the first place. That was what the orignal article : https://danieltan.weblog.lol/2026/05/americas-greatest-strategic-blunder-the-imprisonment-of-qian-xuesen https://danieltan.weblog.lol/2026/05/americas-greatest-strat... is about. Qian was widely considered as a "strategic" scientist in China. The knowledge he had counteracted the Soviet political apparatus, and was enough to propel China into superpower status in less than a hundred years.