The rulers of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia are growing worryingly close. United by a shared hatred of the US-led order, they’re keen to deepen their economic and military-industrial links.
Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, was unusually blunt on a recent visit to Europe: “One of the reasons that [Vladimir] Putin is able to continue this aggression is because of the provision of support from the People’s Republic of China,” he said.
China was, he added, “the biggest supplier of machine tools, the biggest supplier of microelectronics, all of which are helping Russia sustain its defence industrial base”.
