President Trump is correct to try to divide Vladimir Putin from Xi Jinping. The much-hyped Russia-China-North Korea “axis” is an illusion (“China’s Military Parade Was a Message,” Review & Outlook, Sept. 4). Moscow wants relevance, Beijing wants dominance and Pyongyang wants attention. Their unity rests not on common strategy but on resentment and Mr. Xi’s willingness to bankroll them. Remove the money, and the facade will collapse.
We have been fooled before. In the 1970s, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed they had “played the China card” cleverly. In truth, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai played the America card with greater strategic wiles. Nixon’s obsession in 1971-72 wasn’t the Soviets but escaping Vietnam to secure re-election, while Beijing’s true enemy was the U.S.S.R., so bitter that China nearly went to nuclear war with it in 1969. Washington mistook China’s desperation for partnership and elevated Beijing beyond its weight. Realizing the mistake, Nixon admitted near his death that his entreaty to China “may have created a Frankenstein.”