Washington must strengthen alliances amid closer China-Russia ties, US senators hear
- Beijing is happy to see American resources depleted in a prolonged war in Ukraine, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are told
- Lawmakers explore how Moscow’s assaults on Ukraine are affecting the US military’s ability to deter Beijing from attacking Taiwan
China has an interest in a long war in Ukraine as the conflict threatens to deplete American military resources, experts told US lawmakers on Wednesday, adding that the US must build closer ties in other regions to undercut support that Beijing and Moscow get from third countries.
Expectations of closer China-Russia relations was one among many insights offered in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global security challenges, in which lawmakers also explored how Moscow’s war against Ukraine, now entering its second year, affects the US military’s ability to deter Beijing from attacking Taiwan.
“It seems more and more likely that China and Russia will find their interests converging, as they already have up until this date,” said Fiona Hill, who served as the director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council until mid-2019.
“China has no interest in Russia losing in this war, and might in fact have a vested interest in this war going on in Ukraine as long as possible, because it does take up a large amount of equipment and armaments, particularly ammunition and then the increasing demands from Ukraine … for other equipment,” said Hill, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Centre on the United States and Europe.
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“We would make a mistake if we think of China and what Russia is doing as two separate things,” she added. “Right now they’re melded together.”