Show Of Unity With Putin And Kim Could Complicate Xi's Diplomacy

Latest stories

China accuses Nvidia, other US chipmakers of monopoly and dumping

Taking on China in the Pacific: Target corruption or don't bother King Dollar at the precipice: why currency's reign is in jeopardy Pushing EU and US closer together

In Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that the participation of Chinese, Russian, Iranian and North Korean leaders in Beijing's parade represented an“authoritarian alliance” challenging the so-called rules-based international order.

Against this backdrop, China's alignment with Russia and North Korea is only likely to deepen Europe's security concerns and further strain already fraught China–EU economic relations .

It could push the EU to expand anti-dumping measures against China or accelerate efforts to reduce economic dependence on Beijing. And this could hurt China's somewhat sluggish economy : In 2024, China was the European Union's largest source of imports, with trade amounting to US$609 billion, while the EU stood as China's second-largest export market.

Ironically, while U.S. President Donald Trump's second-term policies – such as courting Putin and promoting an“America First” agenda – undermined the traditional transatlantic alliance, the growing China–Russia–North Korea alignment may have the opposite effect: driving Trump to embrace Europe and strengthen cooperation with its allies to counter the new bloc.

It was notable that on September 4 , a day after the Beijing parade, Trump urged European leaders to increase economic pressure on China and accused Beijing of financing Russia's war in Ukraine. The European Commission was seemingly already inclined to go this route, having recently announced that it was weighing whether to include several independent Chinese refineries in its latest round of sanctions against Russia.

Hardening stance in South Korea

The alignment of China, Russia and North Korea also risks promoting a trend Beijing has previously resisted: a China containment strategy forged through anti-Beijing alliances across the Pacific.

We already have a ramping up of US-Philippines naval exercises, US-Indonesia-led multilateral exercises and, now, greater defense ties between Japan and the Philippines.

The Putin-Kim-Xi alliance is likely to push Japan and South Korea - both of which currently have relatively moderate stances toward China - to distance themselves from Beijing and further strengthen their alliances with the US in order to counter this emerging bloc.

On September 11, the US and Japan began two weeks of military exercises featuring the Typhon intermediate-range missile system, capable of striking the Chinese mainland. And starting September 15 , South Korea, Japan and the US will hold annual drills to bolster defenses against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

Alliances aside, Chinese policy also risks hardening the domestic opinion and foreign policies of other nations against Beijing.

In South Korea, the ruling Democratic Party has, to date, favored a friendlier approach toward China and North Korea , while maintaining a cautious attitude toward its alliance with the US and relations with Japan.

This stands in sharp contrast to the previous government of President Yoon Suk Yeol which pursued a hard-line stance on China and North Korea and actively sought to bolster trilateral cooperation with Washington and Tokyo.

Beijing's embrace of North Korea now could force Seoul into reconsidering its China policy and reverting to a more hostile stance.

China's decision to invite Kim Jong Un – long isolated and sanctioned by the international community – to center stage in Beijing has widely been seen as tacit recognition of North Korea's nuclear position.

Notably, during the Xi–Kim summit on September 5 , Beijing made no mention of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula – a point that drew significant attention from South Korean media . It stood in contrast to the pair's four previous meetings, in which both sides expressed support for the realization of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Sino-Japanese relations

Japan finds itself in a position similar to that of South Korea.