China and Russia Relations Naiveté?

A Chinese paramilitary police officer wears a mask to protect against pollution, a rare occurrence, as they march during smog in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Dec. 9, 2015. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

News Analysis

There’s no vacuum in geopolitics, so holistic thinking is needed to arrive at reasonable assessments. Iran has survived all these years, even while under more or less strict sanctions, partially because the regimes in Russia and China keep ignoring the sanctions by buying its oil and selling it weapons and diplomatic protection.