Nato’s original mission was to counterweigh the power of the Soviet Union and its remit had been largely restricted to North America and Europe, as its name would suggest: the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Until recently, summits had always been dominated by the threat from the old foe Russia, especially following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
However, Western diplomats and strategists are increasingly anxious over the threat posed by China’s rising clout, especially amid what they see as a shift by the communist state to embrace more suppressive policies domestically and more assertive policies overseas. They have been caught off guard over the possible formation of an anti-West semi-military alliance between the world’s two greatest authoritarian powers.
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