China and Russia Vowed Closer Ties, Ukraine is Challenging That

Seoul, South Korea — 

Russia’s decision to send troops into two separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine is forcing a difficult choice for China, which has aligned itself closer with Moscow but could face blowback if it is seen as supporting the unilateral redrawing of international borders, analysts say.

The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday formally recognized the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and ordered what it called “peacekeepers” into the contested regions. The moves followed a fiery speech in which Putin questioned Ukraine’s very statehood, further raising concern he is planning a large-scale invasion.

The situation is tricky for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who earlier this month declared a “no limits” partnership with Russia following a meeting with Putin. The meeting was the latest evidence Russia and China have drawn closer as both attempt to counter U.S. global influence.

But the Ukraine issue is already testing how far that enhanced partnership can go. Analysts say China is likely concerned about foreign turmoil that could impact its economy, especially during a sensitive year of domestic political maneuvering meant to shape what is expected to be Xi’s indefinite rule.

China, which has long insisted it opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs, may also be worried about its international reputation taking a hit.

On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the Munich Security Conference that the sovereignty of all nations should be respected. “Ukraine is no exception,” he added.

In recent weeks, China has called for restraint on all sides in Ukraine, as well as a return to the Minsk Agreements, which were meant to restore peace following a flare-up of violence along the Russia-Ukraine border in 2014.

But by recognizing the two disputed Ukrainian territories, Putin “obliterated” the Minsk Agreements, in the process essentially destroying a key Chinese talking point, says Derek Grossman, a senior analyst who focuses on Asia at the RAND Corporation, a California-based global policy research organization. “All of that is completely out the window if Russia does invade,” Grossman told VOA.

Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzya (C) fist bumps Ambassador Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative of China, as US ambassador Thomas-Greenfield and Permanent Representative of Norway Mona Juul look on, Feb. 21, 2022.

Speaking late Monday at an emergency meeting on Ukraine at the United Nations Security Council, China’s U.N. envoy Zhang Jun issued only brief remarks, calling for all sides to “exercise restraint.” He did not mention the Minsk Agreements.

The speech “reads like a placeholder,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “China hasn’t decided what its policy response should be yet,” she concluded.

In some ways, the situation mirrors that of 2014, when Russia seized the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine. At the time, China also responded by insisting that Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty should be respected but that the West should consider Russia’s “legitimate security concerns.”

Since then, however, geopolitics has shifted. Not only have U.S.-China ties worsened, China has gotten stronger economically and militarily and is now bolder about challenging U.S. power.

But Ryan Hass, a China scholar at the U.S.-based Brookings Institution, cautioned against assuming China has already chosen to support Russia on the Ukraine issue.

“If there is war in Ukraine, and if China actively attempts to shield Russia from global condemnation, then China may spur a self-harming solidification of blocs” in which China is aligned with “the weakest other major power,” he tweeted.

China may also be reluctant to damage its diplomatic and economic relationship with Europe, which is strongly opposed to a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Beijing needs to be helped toward realizing that going all-in on the China-Russia relationship carries more risks than benefits,” Hass said.

Other analysts are more pessimistic. Russia and China may be determined to form a relationship that can overturn large swaths of U.S. dominance, argued Robert Kagan, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in an editorial in The Washington Post.

“It is really their shared desire to disrupt the international order that creates a common interest,” he said.

50 Years after Nixon Visit, US-China Ties as Fraught as Ever

BEIJING — At the height of the Cold War, U.S. President Richard Nixon flew into communist China’s center of power for a visit that, over time, would transform U.S.-China relations and China’s position in the world in ways that were unimaginable at the time.

The relationship between China and the United States was always going to be a challenge, and after half a century of ups and downs, is more fraught than ever. The Cold War is long over, but on both sides there are fears a new one could be beginning.

Despite repeated Chinese disavowals, America worries that the democratic-led world that triumphed over the Soviet Union could be challenged by the authoritarian model of a powerful and still-rising China.

“The U.S.-China relationship has always been contentious but one of necessity,” said Oriana Skylar Mastro, a China expert at Stanford University. “Perhaps 50 years ago the reasons were mainly economic. Now they are mainly in the security realm. But the relationship has never — and will never — be easy.”

FILE – Then U.S. President Richard Nixon and then first lady Pat Nixon lead the way as they take a tour of China’s famed Great Wall, near Beijing, Feb. 24, 1972.

Nixon landed in Beijing on a gray winter morning 50 years ago on Monday. Billboards carried slogans such as “Down with American Imperialism,” part of the upheaval under the Cultural Revolution that banished intellectuals and others to the countryside and subjected many to public humiliation and brutal and even deadly attacks in the name of class struggle.

Nixon’s 1972 trip, which included meetings with Chairman Mao Zedong and a visit to the Great Wall, led to the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979 and the parallel severing of formal ties with Taiwan, which the U.S. had recognized as the government of China after the communists took power in Beijing in 1949.

Premier Zhou Enlai’s translator wrote in a memoir that, to the best of his recollection, Nixon said, “This hand stretches out across the Pacific Ocean in friendship” as he shook hands with Zhou at the airport.

For both sides, it was a friendship born of circumstances, rather than natural allegiances.

China and the Soviet Union, formerly communist allies, had split and even clashed along their border in 1969, and Mao saw the United States as a potential counterbalance to any threat of a Soviet invasion.

Nixon, embroiled in the Watergate scandal at home, was seeking to isolate the Soviet Union and exit a prolonged and bloody Vietnam War that had divided American society. He hoped that China, an ally of communist North Vietnam in its battle with the U.S.-backed South, could play a role in resolving the conflict.

FILE – Then U.S. President Richard Nixon and then first lady Pat Nixon looks at a sculpture depicting a mythical beast on the palace grounds of Beijing’s Forbidden City as heavy snow falls on Feb. 25, 1972.

The U.S. president put himself “in the position of supplicant to Beijing,” said June Teufel Dreyer, a Chinese politics specialist at the University of Miami. Chinese state media promoted the idea that a “prosperous China would be a peaceful China” and that the country was a huge market for American exports, she said.

It would be decades before that happened. First, the U.S. became a huge market for China, propelling the latter’s meteoric rise from an impoverished nation to the world’s second largest economy.

Nixon’s visit was a “pivotal event that ushered in China’s turn outward and subsequent rise globally,” said the University of Chicago’s Dali Yang, the author of numerous books on Chinese politics and economics.

Two years after Mao’s death in 1976, new leader Deng Xiaoping ushered in an era of partial economic liberalization, creating a mix of state-led capitalism and single-party rule that has endured to this day.

China’s wealth has enabled a major expansion of its military, which the U.S. and its allies see as a threat. The Communist Party says it seeks only to defend its territory. That includes, however, trying to control islands also claimed by Japan in the East China Sea and by Southeast Asian nations in the South China Sea, home to crucial shipping lanes and natural resources.

The military has sent a growing number of warplanes on training missions toward Taiwan, a source of friction with the United States. China claims the self-governing island off its east coast as its territory. The U.S. supplies Taiwan with military equipment and warns China against any attempt to take it by force.

Still, Nixon’s trip to China was touted afterward as the signature foreign policy achievement of an administration that ended in ignominy with Watergate.

Embarking on the process of bringing China back into the international fold was the right move, but the past half-century has yet to put relations on a stable track, said Rana Mitter, professor of Chinese history and modern politics at Oxford University.

“The U.S. and China have still failed to work out exactly how they will both fit into a world where they both have a role, but find it increasingly hard to accommodate each other,” he said.

Chinese officials and scholars see the Nixon visit as a time when the two countries sought communication and mutual understanding despite their differences. Zhu Feng, the dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University, said the same approach is key to overcoming the current impasse.

“The commemoration of Nixon’s visit tells us whether we can draw a kind of power from history,” he said.

FILE – Then U.S. President Richard Nixon and then China’s Premier Zhou Enlai join the applause at a gymnastic show in Beijing on Feb. 23, 1972 as they stand in the official box under a capacity crowd with a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong above.

Though his trip to China gave the U.S. leverage in its Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union, America now faces a new geopolitical landscape — with echoes of the past.

The Soviet Union is gone, but the Russian and Chinese leaders, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, are finding common cause as they push back against U.S. pressure over their authoritarian ways. The Vietnam War is over, but America once again finds its society divided, this time over the pandemic response and the last presidential election.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said he wants a more predictable relationship with China but major differences over trade and human rights make mutual understanding elusive. The prospect of long-term stability in ties raised by Nixon’s visit seems to be ever farther out of reach.

“China-U.S. relations are terrible,” said Xiong Zhiyong, a professor of international relations at China Foreign Affairs University. “There are indeed people hoping to improve relations, but it is utterly difficult to achieve.”

The Implications of Deepening Economic Ties Between Pakistan, China

Washington — 

A series of new financial agreements between China and Pakistan are signaling a shift in political alignments in the region with implications for South Asian neighbors, the United States and for the economic future of Pakistan itself.

China and Pakistan issued a joint statement that solidified the growing economic ties between the two nations following a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Imran Khan in Beijing during the Winter Olympic Games.

The two countries pledged “bilateral cooperation in areas of economic and technical, industry, investment, infrastructure, space, vaccine, digitalization, standardization, disaster management, culture, sports and vocational education,” according to the statement.

The meeting between the two leaders comes in the wake of the U.S-led diplomatic boycott of the Olympic Games to protest the allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which China denies.

The high-profile meeting was meant to showcase support for Beijing in this period of diplomatic tension, analysts say.

“I think Imran Khan’s visit really shows support, Pakistan’s support, for China in the face of this boycott. So it’s a public display of support especially given the number of high-profile ministers who traveled with him to China,” said Madiha Afzal, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Chinese-Pakistani economic ties

The diplomatic relationship between Beijing and Islamabad dates to 1951, and the alliance between the two countries was solidified as both countries recognized they had a mutual adversary – India – and sought to contain its dominance in South Asia.

FILE – A soldier stands guard beside the Cosco Wellington, the first container ship to depart after the inauguration of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor port in Gwadar, Pakistan, Nov. 13, 2016.

The first trade agreement between Pakistan and China was signed in 1963 and the economic ties strengthened in 2013 with the establishment of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a collection of Chinese-funded infrastructure projects designed to upgrade Pakistan’s infrastructure and improve its economy. CPEC is a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The economic relationship is not limited to trade and CPEC, as China is one of Pakistan’s largest lenders, holding more than 27% of Pakistan’s debt.

“China doesn’t have friends and allies. China has countries which are indebted to China,” Aparna Pande, research fellow at the Hudson Institute, told VOA.

Risk to the Pakistani economy

Unemployment and poverty exacerbated by the pandemic have been indicators of Pakistan’s economic woes, with its GDP declining by 26.4% in the second quarter of 2020. The Pakistani economy has since partially rebounded.

Pakistan has been facing currency devaluation and high inflation. Last November, the International Monetary Fund revived a $6 billion bailout for Pakistan’s economy originally approved in 2019.

FILE – A volunteer serves food to people in need along a street in Karachi, Jan. 10, 2022,

Some analysts note that the country’s unwillingness to undertake significant economic reforms contributes to its deteriorating economy.

“Pakistan’s problem is it doesn’t have enough foreign exchange reserves because the economy isn’t growing fast enough for it to get money. It is refusing to undertake structural reforms, which would enable the second and third tranches of the IMF and enable other foreign investors to invest money,” Pande said.

Tara Kartha, in an op-ed in ThePrint, an Indian online news outlet, described Pakistan’s practice of borrowing from China, paying interest, deferring repayment to other countries such as Saudi Arabia and looking to the IMF for bailouts.

This is a “classic debt trap of its own making, only getting worse over the years as Islamabad skips nimbly from one loan to the next. It’s beyond bankruptcy. It’s a state of collapse,” Kartha wrote.

But Afzal, the Brookings Institution fellow, cautioned against concluding too quickly that Chinese loans are bad for the Pakistani economy.

“It’ll depend on the terms of the loans, and China has proven to be a player which … holds Pakistan to the terms of the loans. So Pakistan can’t necessarily defer payments on those loans, even if it needs to or wants to,” Afzal said.

Geopolitical implications

Some analysts say the Sino-Pakistan joint statement symbolically confirms the growing alliance between China and Pakistan, but that it would not affect the strained relationship between Pakistan and the United States.

The once-close relationship between the two nations has become increasingly estranged because of U.S. allegations that Pakistan harbors and sponsors terrorist groups and Pakistan’s frustrations with U.S. drone strikes and what it views as a violation of its sovereignty.

“Pakistan and the U.S. both have explicitly said that they don’t want (the Sino-Pakistani) relationship necessarily to be part of those (lack of dialogue) blocks. The relationship has been strained, but I would not characterize it as strained beyond repair,” Afzal said.

FILE – State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a media briefing at the State Department, July 7, 2021.

“We’ve made the point all along that it is not a requirement for any country around the world to choose between the United States and China,” Ned Price, U.S. State Department spokesman, said at a February 2 news briefing.

When asked for comment on the potential benefits of Sino-Pakistan cooperation, the Pakistani embassy referred VOA to the joint statement, noting the deep economic ties that were announced. The Chinese embassy did not respond to VOA’s inquiry.

But for India, Pande said, the joint statement validates the country’s concerns about closer ties between two adversaries.

“It’s a dual threat on India’s continental landmass, combined with the threat on India’s maritime domain. So for India this just strengthens its belief that Pakistan is very close to China and that China continues to use Pakistan to cause problems for India,” Pande said.

Erdogan Visits UAE in Bid to Repair Ties with Arab World

Istanbul — 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting the United Arab Emirates, hoping to repair strained ties. Analysts say shared concerns over Iran could provide common ground.

Erdogan said that his two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates, which began Monday, aims to ease years of tension and rivalry with the Persian Gulf state.

He said that with the visit, Turkey aims to develop the momentum it has achieved and to take the necessary steps to bring relations back to the level, he said, they deserve.

Turkey has found itself increasingly isolated across the Middle East, due largely to Ankara’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist group, something that has caused unease among many Middle Eastern leaders.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, second right, arrive at Qasr Al-Watan in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 14, 2022.

Teacher of international relations Soli Ozel at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University says Erdogan’s UAE visit is part of a wider regional reset, with Iran providing crucial common ground.

“Turkey’s charm offensive has targeted several countries, with one of them the United Arab Emirates. Both countries have an interest, along with all the western countries, for Iran not to be so influential as it is today,” he said.

Turkey is increasingly in competition with Iran, from the Caucasus to Syria.

Last week Turkish pro-government media reported several alleged Iranian agents were arrested in Turkey in a joint Turkish-Israeli intelligence service operation to thwart the assassination of a Turkish-Israeli businessman.

The arrests came after Iran recently cut off natural gas supplies to Turkey for more than a week, causing much of the country’s manufacturing sector to shut down for several days.

Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the European Council, says there are suspicions the gas shut-off may have been politically motivated.

“We’ve seen Iran cut off the natural gas for Turkey ostensibly because [it] had something breaking down or it [Iran] needed it for its internal market. But it’s no coincidence that this happened after a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Iran leader [Ebrahim] Raisi. This was clearly a message to Turkey,” she said.

Iran and Russia are working closely together in Syria in backing the Damascus regime, while Turkey backs Syrian rebels. Moscow has also voiced its anger over Ankara selling armed drones to Ukraine.

Analyst Ozel warns that the Turkish-Iranian rivalry is likely to escalate, with Ankara sharing Western and Middle Eastern countries’ fears over Iran’s nuclear energy program.

“If Turkey wants to jump on board in that struggle, then yes, we can expect Turkish-Iranian relations to be a bit testy. On the other hand, Turkey and Iran manage to have competitive and cooperative relations for centuries, so they are pretty well versed on how to do that,” he said.

If there’s a breakdown in talks between Iran and the international community to resolve concerns over Iran’s nuclear energy program, analysts warn that Turkey’s effort to balance competition and rivalry with its Iranian neighbor could face a greater test.

Blinken Boosts Indo-Pacific Ties, Keeps Up Ukraine Diplomacy

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Australia for talks on security and fighting COVID-19. But the massing of Russian troops along Ukraine’s border has also cast a spotlight on the growing partnership between China and Russia. VOA’s senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
Camera: Nike Ching

Human Rights, Economic Ties Drive Decisions to Boycott – or Not – 2022 Olympics

SAN FRANCISCO — 

As much as China and the International Olympic Committee have pushed for the Olympic Games to be a neutral event, political controversy and boycotts of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics started months before Friday’s opening ceremonies.

But not everyone’s enmeshed in politics.

Boycott supporters, including human rights groups, are calling out Beijing over perceived strong-arm tactics toward Taiwan, anti-Beijing protesters in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong and the largely Muslim Uyghur population in the Chinese Xinjiang region.

Yet analysts say many developing countries value their economic ties with China, political divides notwithstanding, so they sent officials as well as athletes to stay on Beijing’s good side.

Australia has avoided sending government officials to the Feb. 4-20 Games over its belief that China is abusing human rights and refusing to hold talks on trade and diplomatic disputes. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that decision in early December, becoming one of the dozen-plus countries that announced diplomatic boycotts.

Most other countries with diplomatic boycotts are like Australia – with a record of concerns about human rights in China and enough wealth to get past any economic reprisals. The United States announced its diplomatic boycott in December. Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan and some 10 European countries have followed. Although government officials will not be attending, these nations still let their athletes compete in the Winter Games.

“In Europe, I think it’s very important and here in the United States and in Australia, there are populations that really do care about human rights,” said Scott Harold, a Washington-based senior political scientist with the Rand Corporation research group. “This is not just a stick to beat China or an attempt to contain China’s rise. It’s really in part about living the values that you say guide your polity.”

Six Summer or Winter Olympiads over the event’s more than 100-year history have weathered boycotts.

Officials in Beijing see diplomatic boycotts as an inappropriate mix of sports and politics. They vowed reprisal against the United States in December.

Photo Gallery:

2022 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

The U.S. diplomatic boycott of its Games “seriously violated the principle of the political neutrality of sports established by the Olympic Charter and that the U.S. will pay a price for it,” state-run China Daily reported.

China has denied accusations of human rights abuses and described the reasons for some U.S. lawmakers’ call for a diplomatic boycott as “full of lies and false information” that is “based on ideology and political prejudice” according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News Agency.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Economic, regional ties

Chinese economic clout stops some governments from boycotting, said James Gomez, regional director of the Asia Centre, a Bangkok-based think tank. Countries throughout the developing world, especially in Asia and Africa, look to China’s $15.6 trillion economy as an irreplaceable market for exports and a source of direct investment.

“China is there, it’s big, so let’s just play nice even if they may not mean it because in the play of diplomacy everybody does the doublespeak,” Gomez said. “So, even if they may be aligned politically in a different way, they will still not publicly distance themselves from China.”

The Philippines, which has its own list of problems with China, decided to send three officials to the Games with its single athlete, alpine skier Asa Miller.

Filipinos had “hardly any public discussion about participating or not” in the Games this month, said Herman Kraft, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Beijing and Manila have sparred with occasional ship standoffs since 2012 for control over the resource-rich South China Sea between them.

“There might be some concern about reprisals, but I think it’s more of a preemptive thing in the sense that they’re not too interested in using the Olympics as a forum or an arena where relations with China might actually be made at risk,” Kraft said.

Other Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia and Vietnam, also vie with China over maritime sovereignty, but Malaysia has praised China for hosting the Olympics. Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a letter to Chinese officials wishing them a successful Winter Olympics, according to Vietnamese state media, Nhân Dân.

A “fear of further sanctions” may explain South Korea’s unwillingness to boycott the Games, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a Jan. 13 study. China sanctioned South Korea after its deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in 2016, the study says, costing tourism alone $15.7 billion.

Beijing kicked off the Olympics on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach appearing at an opening ceremony in the National Stadium.

Iran, Russia Tout Closer Ties Amid Tensions With Europe, US

Iran’s president visited Russia this week on a visit Iranian officials called a “turning point” in their relations, as officials also announced a planned joint naval exercise that includes China for later this week.

The visit by President Ebrahim Raisi to Moscow comes amid rising tensions between Russia and Western countries over Moscow’s troop buildup on Ukraine’s border, broadly seen as preparation for a possible invasion. Russia claims it has no plans to invade.

In a speech Thursday before Russia’s parliament, the Duma, Raisi accused NATO of expanding into “various geographical areas with new coverings that threaten the common interests of independent states.”

Raisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at the Kremlin on Wednesday, but despite the red-carpet welcome, there were no substantial country-to-country agreements announced.

“The significance of the trip at the moment is still mostly symbolic,” Alex Vatanka, director of the Middle East Institute’s Iran Program, told VOA. “There’s talk of closer military cooperation. There’s talk of strategic cooperation in the energy sector. We’ve heard this before. Time will show if any tangible deals can be reached.”

In his only tweet about Raisi’s trip to Russia, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, was cryptic. “The presidents of the two countries agreed on a long-term roadmap,” he wrote, without clarifying what the map was about or whether an agreement was signed.

During Raisi’s travels, Iranian state-run media reported planned joint naval exercises among Iranian, Russian and Chinese forces in the north of the Indian Ocean on Friday. Iran’s armed forces and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps will take part in the drills, an Iranian military official said.

Iran became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in September 2021, thanks to strong Russian support.

In this handout photo released by the Russian Federation Press Service, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gestures after delivering his speech at the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, in Moscow, Jan. 20, 2022.

Uncertainty ahead of nuclear talks

The Iranian president also gave assurances in remarks before Russian officials that his country was not seeking nuclear arms. “We are not looking for a nuclear weapon, and such weapons have no place in our defense strategy,” Raisi told Russian lawmakers.

The United States and its allies accuse Iran of trying to make nuclear weapons and using terrorism to destabilize countries in the Middle East – charges Tehran rejects.

Iranian diplomats are in talks with U.S. and European counterparts to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump pulled out of, calling it “one-sided and unacceptable.”

The talks are at a “decisive moment,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday. The top U.S. diplomat warned that Washington and its allies might change tactics if a deal isn’t reached in the coming weeks.

Speaking in Vienna on Thursday alongside Blinken, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock indicated that European nations had sought to ensure China and Russia also maintained pressure on Iran.

In Moscow, the Iranian president said his country was “serious about reaching an agreement if the other parties are serious about lifting the sanctions effectively and operationally.”

In this photo released by the Russian Federation Press Service, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, left, and Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin talk to each other during their meeting in Moscow, Jan. 20, 2022.

Opportunistic alliance?

Russia and Iran both have critical disagreements with the U.S. on issues ranging from Iran’s nuclear program and alleged backing of terrorist groups in the Middle East to Russia’s security and strategic threats to NATO. The two countries have also cooperated in some areas, such as countering U.S. interests in Syria and Afghanistan.

But on other topics, divides include Iran’s existential threats to Israel and Russia’s official objection to Iran’s proliferation of nuclear arms.

“This is not a matter of two nations which agree on politics or ideology to, somehow, form an alliance. It is basically an opportunistic alliance where both countries would really ignore their differences because of their hostility to the United States,” Anthony Cordesman, an expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA.

It’s unclear to what extent Putin will go with Iran and against the West, experts say.

With the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, which shares a long border with Iran and three Central Asian republics, analysts say Moscow and Tehran will find a common agenda in countering drugs, refugees and terrorist groups like the Islamic State’s Khorasan branch.

“Russia and Iran will probably blame everything that will go wrong in Afghanistan on the U.S. policies. But the reality is now Afghanistan is on its own, and neighboring states like Russia and Iran have every reason to shape the internal dynamics of Afghanistan in a way that their actual interests are not jeopardized,” said Vatanka of the Middle East Institute.

Before their seizure of power in Afghanistan, the Taliban signed an agreement with the U.S. that requires them to deny territory and support to any group that poses threats to the U.S. security and interests.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and RFE/RL.

US Drops Case Against MIT Professor Accused of Ties to China

WASHINGTON — 

The Justice Department dropped charges Thursday against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor accused of concealing ties to the Chinese government, a further setback to a federal initiative that was set up to prevent economic espionage and theft by Beijing of trade secrets and academic research.

The department revealed its decision in the case against Gang Chen in a filing in federal court in Boston, saying it could no longer meet its burden of proof.

U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, said the move was “in the interests of justice” and was the result of new information the government had received about the allegations.

“After a careful assessment of this new information in the context of all the evidence, our office has concluded that we can no longer meet our burden of proof at trial,” Rollins said. “As prosecutors, we have an obligation in every matter we pursue to continually examine the facts while being open to receiving and uncovering new information.”

The outcome, which had been expected and was earlier recommended by prosecutors in Boston, is a blow to a Justice Department effort known as the China Initiative, which was set up in 2018 to crack down on Chinese economic espionage and trade secret theft. A key prong of the initiative has focused on academics in the U.S. accused of concealing research ties to China on grant applications. But critics have long said the effort unduly targets researchers based on ethnicity and that it chills academic collaboration.

The Justice Department is reviewing the future of the program, a process expected to be completed in the coming weeks, said spokesperson Wyn Hornbuckle.

In a statement, Chen thanked his supporters and said he would have more to say soon.

“While I am relieved that my ordeal is over, I am mindful that this terribly misguided China Initiative continues to bring unwarranted fear to the academic community and other scientists still face charges,” Chen said.

Accusations against Chen

Chen, a mechanical engineering professor, was arrested in January 2021 in the final days of the Trump administration and charged with concealing ties to Beijing while also collecting U.S. payment for his nanotechnology research.

Prosecutors accused him at the time of entering into undisclosed contracts and appointments with Chinese entities, including acting as an “overseas expert” for the Chinese government at the request of the People’s Republic of China Consulate Office in New York. Many of those roles were “expressly intended to further the PRC’s scientific and technological goals,” authorities in court documents.

He was accused of failing to disclose information about connections to China in an application for an Energy Department grant. Chen’s lawyers have consistently said that he did nothing wrong and that he disclosed what he needed to disclose.

The case began to wobble as the government received new information, including from the Energy Department, a person familiar with the matter said last week.

In a statement Thursday, defense attorney Robert Fisher called the case a “wayward prosecution” and said his client was eager to return to work. He thanked the “many witnesses who came forward and told the government how badly they misunderstood the details surrounding scientific and academic collaboration.”

“Our defense was this: Gang did not commit any of the offenses he was charged with. Full stop. He was never in a talent program. He was never an overseas scientist for Beijing. He disclosed everything he was supposed to disclose, and he never lied to the government or anyone else,” Fisher said in a statement.

Other China Initiative cases

Many of the China Initiative cases against academics and professors have centered on false statement or fraud allegations, rather than accusations of espionage or passing along academic research or technical or scientific expertise to China.

The initiative has resulted in some significant guilty pleas and convictions and did score a high-profile win last month with the conviction of a Harvard University professor on charges that he hid his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program.

But other big cases brought as part of the China Initiative have faltered.

A federal judge in September, for example, threw out all charges against a University of Tennessee professor accused of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from NASA, and the university has since offered to reinstate him.

Critics of the China Initiative have called for the Justice Department to shut the program down. The department’s top national security official, Matthew Olsen, met Wednesday with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, who expressed their concerns.

Andrew Lelling, who was the U.S. attorney in Boston when Chen was charged, wrote in a LinkedIn post several weeks ago that the China Initiative was created in response to “concerns about economic espionage involving an emerging political rival.”

Now, he wrote, the “initiative has drifted, and in some significant ways, lost its focus. DOJ should revamp, and shut down, parts of the program, to avoid needlessly chilling scientific and business collaborations with Chinese partners.”