On Balance | Why China’s role in Saudi-Iran deal could also be good news for Ukraine, US Republicans

Should we laud Beijing for brokering last week’s surprise Saudi-Iran rapprochement or regard it with scepticism? On its face, the diplomatic breakthrough is good.

What the China-brokered accord means for US security and influence is another matter. Seen from the perspective of this column, which frequently warns about the danger to democracy posed by the far-right wing of the US Republican Party, we can find another reason to celebrate the development.

That vortex of election denialism, LGBTQ debasement and book ban fetishism – a truly Putinesque mix – is more torqued up than ever about China’s efforts to undermine US interests, as we have seen in a crush of congressional hearings on the subject in recent weeks. This includes the first hearing by the House committee on China, which beat this drum for a prime-time audience.

A central theme in most of the other hearings in Washington has been the extent to which a defeated Russia would be catastrophic for Beijing’s global ambitions. Even the top Asia adviser on former US president Donald Trump’s National Security Council, Matthew Pottinger, drove this point home in an interview with The Washington Post, in which he praised some of US President Joe Biden’s strategy on this front.

With all this in mind, how do right-wing Republicans who have criticised or questioned US aid to Ukraine react to the image of top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in a three-way handshake with Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Musaad bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, Saudi Arabia’s national security adviser?