Many commentators missed it, but President Xi Jinping’s decision to send China’s most senior diplomat to Russia in the week of the anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine marked a turning point; a line in the sand.
When one of the five permanent members on the UN Security Council illegally invades another state, another permanent member then refuses to condemn that invasion, and the other three offer no collective strategy to check this blatant breach of international law, then humanity has entered a dark, unpredictable chapter.
Russia’s belligerent behaviour is not isolated. Putin and Xi have pursued a shared objective of seeing the West, especially America, weakened. Both feel threatened by an international rules-based order that calls for greater freedoms, democratic accountability and transparency. And both pursue an agenda of expanding their sphere of influence by military means if necessary. Microsoft.
