Russia and China’s alliance is an illusion; each wants to dominate the other

China Russia Map

On Wednesday, Russia and China signed a $400 billion dollar natural gas deal. According to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s agreement to sell 38 billion cubic meters of gas to China is “the biggest contract in the history of the gas sector of the former USSR.”

Putin’s Soviet reference can’t help but remind observers of the days when Russia and China were both real Communist powers, on the same side against America and its Western allies.

The deal does get to American fears that Russia, pushing away from Europe after the Ukraine crisis, could team up with China against the Western world. Moscow may want to communicate that as well: Russia Today, the Kremlin’s English-language propaganda channel, ran a piece calling the deal “the beginning of the de-dollarisation and de-Americanisation of the world.”

But the idea of a world-changing Russia-China alliance is poppycock. The natural…