A Global US Can’t Avoid Confronting China and Russia

China and Russia will continue to test the limits of their power until they are stopped. When the bayonet meets flesh, it plunges deeper. Xi recently warned that those who try to block China's ascent will be met with a "wall of steel". Were his remarks a warning to the West, or for domestic consumption? Xi's reputation has been tarnished by his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. China's economic miracle is slowing down, its economy growing just 6.6 per cent in 2018, the lowest rate in 28 years. Its population is ageing, further slowing economic development. The CPC is comprised of elites, hardly representative of 1.4 billion Chinese.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) converse while walking to attend their meeting at the Great Hall of People in Beijing, China, 25 April 2019. EPA-EFE/KENZABURO FUKUHARA / POOL

Ukraine meanwhile is a flashpoint for conflict escalation between Russia and the West. Russia supports separatist militias in Donbas, in southeast Ukraine. It recently escalated tension by confronting HMS Defender, a British warship sailing in international waters near Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Britain does not recognize Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimea, or its claim to Ukrainian territorial waters in the Black Sea. According to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, "The important point is that we don't recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea. This is part of a sovereign Ukrainian territory, it was entirely right that we should vindicate the law [of the sea] and pursue freedom of navigation in the way that we did."

Russia's response was swift, including military and diplomatic reprisals. Russian war planes allegedly fired warning shots during the Defender's