The Atlantic

It's Not Too Late to Prevent a Russia-China Axis

Here’s how the U.S. can avoid driving the two countries together.
Source: Mladen Antonov / AFP / Getty

Chinese tanks splashed through the mud, while a few dozen helicopters flew in formation overhead in eastern Russia, and a young Chinese military recruit explained, “I have never experienced an overseas deployment of this scale.” The scene neatly summed up the much-written-about, enormous Russian military exercises that took place this week. Participants included 300,000 Russian and 3,200 Chinese soldiers. They deeply rattled the West.

Is this the beginning of a Chinese-Russian alliance, as proclaimed? Is President Xi into President Putin’s arms?

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