12 October 2024

China’s Balancing Act With the ‘Axis of Upheaval’

François Godement

Everyone remembers former U.S. President George W. Bush’s 2002 designation of an “axis of evil,” at the time comprising Ali Khamenei’s Iran, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Kim Jong Il’s North Korea. Today, experts at the the Center for a New American Security refer to an “axis of the upheaval” and former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to an “axis of the aggressors” in order to describe the dynamics between China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

Europe is also concerned by the ties between the Asian and European strategic theaters. China is in a state of quasi-alliance with Russia, which has invaded Ukraine, as demonstrated by Marcin Kaczmarski, in “strategic cooperation” with Iran, which entertains its own axis of disruption through the Middle East as evidenced by Pierre Pinhas. Meanwhile, Beijing in 2021 renewed a mutual defense treaty with North Korea – the only such formal alliance that China entertains, as Adam Cathcart explains.

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