China and Russia: Alliance or Alignment?

The Biden Administration has identified Russia and China as among the principal threats to the values and interests of all “democratic” nations. Biden’s first National Security Strategic Guidance singled out the combination of a “destabilising” Russia and “an increasingly assertive” China as two of the foremost challenges facing the US and its allies in Europe and Asia. Presidents Putin and Xi Jinping have both repeatedly denied any intention to create a military alliance. To what extent is this growing cooperation a threat to the US and countries allied with it? The author of this article addresses this question by reviewing the convergence of interests that brings the two giant nations together as well as the issues which set them apart.