When I was growing up, the USSR and Communist China formed the original Axis of Evil. Then, in later years, the “Sino-Soviet split” changed the geopolitical calculus. Now, it seems that a Russian-Chinese alliance may be re-forming.
A week ago, it was reported that American diplomats went to their Chinese counterparts with evidence of an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine, in hopes that President Xi would try to talk Putin out of it:
Over three months, senior Biden administration officials held half a dozen urgent meetings with top Chinese officials in which the Americans presented intelligence showing Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine and beseeched the Chinese to tell Russia not to invade, according to U.S. officials.