March 24: Putin and Xi’s Evil League of Evil

In which, Russia and Xi celebrate their “friendship”, Biden’s presidency gets more hapless by the day, and the banks are surviving for now.

Putin and Xi’s Evil League of Evil

If you don’t get the reference in the headline, here you go. You’re welcome. Onwards!

China premier Xi Jinping was in Moscow this week on an extended date night with Vladimir Putin. The visit ended with both leaders affirming their mutual regard and deep connection with each other (signaled by Russia supplanting Saudi Arabia as China’s leading oil supplier). However, China still seems to be hedging a bit on fully backing Russia in Ukraine. Still, the economic support is more than enough to keep the Russian economy on life support. 

Add in the supporting baddies in Tehran (who just concluded joint naval exercises with the two heavyweights) and Pyongyang, and Russia and China are essentially heading up a bloc of authoritarian countries. It’s a bad guys club made for a multipolar world.

With China pushing into the Middle East and probably hoping to link up client states from Tehran to Damascus, Russia appears to be running point in efforts to solidify support in Africa. 

This isn’t to say Russia is stepping out of the Middle East or China is exiting Africa. What I am saying, though, is that at precisely the same time that America and its democratic allies are stepping back from the Middle East and Africa, Russia and China are moving very opportunistically to fill the void, and the resulting regional upheaval (Kazakhstan, Tunisia, and Thailand are all this week’s examples) is going to create strategic security problems/distractions for the US. Perhaps that’s China’s game?