A New Anti-American Axis?

[Purveyor]

On his first foreign trip as president of China, Xi Jinping was welcomed to Russia by President Vladimir V. Putin in March.

By LESLIE H. GELB and DIMITRI K. SIMES
Published: July 6, 2013

THE flight of the leaker Edward J. Snowden from Hong Kong to Moscow last month would not have been possible without the cooperation of Russia and China. The two countries’ behavior in the Snowden affair demonstrates their growing assertiveness and their willingness to take action at America’s expense.

Beyond their protection of Mr. Snowden, Chinese-Russian policies toward Syria have paralyzed the United Nations Security Council for two years, preventing joint international action. Chinese hacking of American companies and Russia’s cyberattacks against its neighbors have also caused concern in Washington. While Moscow and Beijing have generally supported international efforts to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program, they clearly were not prepared to go as far as Washington was, and any coordinated shift in their approach could instantly gut America’s policy on the issue and endanger its security and energy interests. To punctuate the new potential for cooperation, China is now carrying out its largest ever joint naval exercises — with Russia.

Russia and China appear to have decided that, to better advance their own interests, they need to knock Washington down a peg or two. Neither probably wants to kick off a new cold war, let alone hot conflicts, and their actions in the case of Mr. Snowden show it. China allowed him into Hong Kong, but gently nudged his departure, while Russia, after some provocative rhetoric, seems to have now softened its tone.

Still, both countries are seeking greater diplomatic clout that they apparently reckon they can acquire only by constraining the United States. And in world affairs, there’s no better way to flex one’s muscles than to visibly diminish the strongest power.

This new approach appears based in part on a sense of their growing strength relative to America and their increasing emphasis on differences over issues like Syria. Both Moscow and Beijing oppose the principle of international action to interfere in a country’s sovereign affairs, much less overthrow a government, as happened in Libya in 2011. After all, that principle could always backfire on them.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/opinion/sunday/a-new-anti-american-axis.html?_r=0

[Posteritatis]

1. That's not a hysterical headline at *all*... (nt)

[Purveyor]

2. I only wished it would have qualified for LBN... eom

[cprise]

3. And notice the segue from intentionally vague Iran "nuclear program" to

..."Iran's nuclear weapons program".

NYT is back to drum-beating, if it had ever stopped.

[bemildred]

4. Yes, of course, it's all about us, isn't it? nt

[Igel]

5. New?

Not. The two have been allies to some extent for a long time, and while it's not all "about us" a good part of it dates to the '90s when Russia and China both saw Yugoslavija bombed. Russia saw it's Orthodox Serb allies targeted, and let's not forget the wonderful outpouring of Chinese nationalistic enthusiasm when we hit the Chinese embassy in Beograd.

It is about a balance of power, dating to when China was weaker.

But it's also about shared borders and resources and, well, tactical and strategic goals. Russia has a huge sparsely populated, resource-rich area. And it went ballistic when it was implied that it's too large a country, given its population and resources. That, next to a very well-populated, resource-hungry country.

And let's not forget that while the US/Mexico border is "poorly defended," the Chinese/Russian border isn't probably even demarcated for most of its territory. It would be very, very easy for Chinese to make up the overwhelming majority of the population along the most useful strip of territory in that part of Siberia, the bit along the Chinese border. Then for the Chinese to develop a historical claim that it was once, at least for a day, part of Greater China--and once part of China, always part of the Chinese Empire. Uh ... part of China.

While Americans may forget that China's been involved in a few military skirmishes, Russia doesn't. So it made sense for a markedly weaker Russia to cozy up to a China that was paranoid about the US, in geostrategic terms.