China's indispensable support has enabled Russia to sustain its full-scale war against Ukraine for over four years, a scenario once deemed unlikely by observers. By early 2026, authoritarian cooperation, including China's economic and logistical linchpin role, Iran's drone mass-production, and North Korean troop and ammunition contributions (accounting for roughly half of Russia’s artillery expenditure on the Ukrainian front in the second half of 2025), converged to prolong Europe's longest land war since WWII.
This partnership, deepened by over 70 meetings between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin since 2012, aims to eclipse the US-led alliance system and reorganize global affairs around a revisionist China-Russia axis. Despite "asymmetric interdependence" where China dominates economically and Moscow's narrower global governance ambitions sometimes clashing with Beijing's, both regimes remain committed to close ties. While not a formal alliance, thousands of Chinese firms are reportedly supplying Russia’s war machine, posing a significant and genuine threat to the United States and its allies.
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