China and Russia just announced a new alliance against the United States, the Washington Examiner reports. 

Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a lengthy joint statement that they released on Friday just before the opening of the Olympic Games. That statement followed a meeting between the two.

The Washington Examiner reports the statement as forecasting the “transformation of the global governance architecture and world order,” or, in short, “a new world order.”

This transformation, according to the outlet, will be characterized by an explicit relationship between Russia and China against the West.

Ukraine and Taiwan

Russia and China made it clear in the statement that they will support each other on two controversial issues: Ukraine and Taiwan.

Russia has been amassing troops along the Ukrainian border for months threatening an invasion in an attempt to stop the country from joining up with NATO. China, similarly, for years, has attempted to claim authority over Taiwan. The West has stood against both Russia and China on both issues.

Now, however, China and Russia have made it clear that, about Ukraine and Taiwan, they will stand together against the West.

They wrote:

Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions, intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext, oppose color revolutions, and will increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas.

The “Greater Eurasian Partnership”

Another area that China and Russia will unite in is economics, specifically China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union.

The statement reads:

The sides reaffirm their focus on building the Greater Eurasian Partnership in parallel and in coordination with the Belt and Road construction to foster the development of regional associations as well as bilateral and multilateral integration processes for the benefit of the peoples on the Eurasian continent.

In many ways, none of this is that surprising. Many have expected that, behind the scenes, Russia and China have already been teaming up for years. The question, though, is why go public now?

Stefanie Babst, a former NATO chief strategic policy analyst, told the Washington Examiner:

The prime addressee sits in the White House, with the main message being, ‘**** you. We are the future, and you are the past.’