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Opinion | Why China and Russia are unlikely to maintain a long-term strategic alliance
Cary Huang says that mutual distrust of the United States can’t overcome the long history of rivalry between former empires, or meld diverging interests
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The high-profile joint military exercises between China and Russia have reinforced the fear that an anti-Western, China-Russia alliance is forming.
Annual exercises between the world’s second- and third-best funded armies have included coastal drills in Vladivostok from September 18-21 and sea exercises in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk from September 22-26 – following an earlier Baltic Sea naval exercise in July.
The joint operation from Europe to Asia not only showcased a budding military partnership, but indicated determination to challenge US domination on the high seas.
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The largest-ever exercises took place close to North Korea amid escalating tensions on the peninsula over the Stalinist regime’s nuclear ambitions, as the probability of war increases and rhetoric escalates between Washington and Pyongyang.
Trump ‘appreciates’ China, Russia backing on tough North Korea sanctions that have ‘big financial impact’
Moscow and Beijing share a common stand, having made repeated calls for a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear stand-off. They also share opposition to the deployment of the US-developed Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system in South Korea, designed to protect against a nuclear attack from the North.
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