Capitalist gangs will always vie for dominance versus competitors with the ultimate aim of attaining a dominant position. Much like street gangs that want to attain dominance in a neighborhood, capitalist powers are out to obtain dominance in the world neighborhood.
The 21st century has seen the rise of new capitalist gangs that are challenging the heretofore mostly dominant Western gang led by the USA. The latter has been aggressively pursuing its aims since the end of WWII when it survived with its industrial and military establishment largely intact. The new challengers most effectively represented by Russia and China refuse to take orders from the dominant capitalist gang. Consequently we are witnessing a closer relationship between Russian and China and a new ramped-up cold war between the latter two countries and the US-led Empire in the form of mostly an economic war, but also we are noticing that the participants are beefing up their military capabilities which, of course, includes devastating nuclear weapons. This on top of the never-ending "terrorist wars" is signalling that we are entering a new and very dangerous phase in human history.
Cunningham reports on the type of deals that the two countries, Russia and China, have made in reaction to the Empire's aggressive policies toward Russia, and to a lessor extent toward China.
Russia’s economic freefall and isolation from the West has made it increasingly eager to build its relationship with China, even at the cost of lost leverage with Beijing.
But new economic data from China shows that Russia has succeeded in capturing a larger share of the massive – and growing – Chinese oil import market.