As the United States and Europe embark on an increasingly hawkish policy towards China, Beijing has moved to welcome the formation of an alliance with Russia to counter NATO.

Speaking at the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party last month, Xi Jinping delivered what Western analysts are calling an “incendiary speech” in which he called for a military union with Russia that would render NATO “powerless” and “put an end to the imperialist desires of the West.”