So given that the lack of credible response to their epidemic which turned it into a pandemic, their bullying tactics towards other nations around the world and their continual interfering in the political affairs of others countries has led China to becoming a pariah nation in the eyes of the rest of the world, this pact seems about right.

Good thing the Iranians run their country like their new besties because if they didn't have that type of complete control, their population might not be to happy to know their gov't got into bed with such a fun loving country who, for shits and giggles has been sending their religious brethren to "reeducation camps" from which they never seem to return and then forcibly interbreeding their military members with the widows.


To be honest, if there was ever a match made in heaven it was these two.

   

Just in the West. China is very involved in a lot of construction in Africa. Many Africans also go to China as cheap labour, where they are immediately discriminated against.

   

Actually, there is considerable opposition from religious conservatives to this deal, led by none other than the former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It’s not something the mullahs would have sought but they don’t have many options left. Surrender to the Americans would be impossible for any Iranian government, theocratic or secular. If it is confirmed, one of the biggest losers will be India, as commentary from that country clearly shows:

https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis ... IPbM.htmlw

Another lesson to be drawn is that the maximum pressure campaign against Iran has produced at least one unexpected and highly undesirable outcome for the US:



The days when the US could turn off China’s oil supply may be coming to a close.

   

Why do you think we are in Afganistan?

   

Unsettling how easy it was to change that one small part of that paragraph and have it be utterly true. No joke, and no one should laugh at it. And I'm sure I'll be yelled at again for pointing it out but if it weren't for the non-stop and completely un-necessary belligerence that's been coming out of the US since January 2017 then this pact between America's enemies probably wouldn't be happening.

This is what happens when the US stops leading, engages in some retarded form of neo-isolationism, adopts a "pay us or else" mafioso mentality, and essentially becomes an untrustworthy snake that it's allies and friends have to be wary of - a veritable field day for the true villains out there flowers into existence.

   

The West faces some ugly dilemmas. Russian communism was inherently unattractive for export - take a visit to Cuba - but our friends in the CCP are offering serious loans and high grade expertise to dictatorships, illiberal democracies and even EU countries with a cash flow problem free of any strings about human rights and the like without any demand to follow the Chinese political model. They may turn out to have a more attractive product than we can offer for a changing world. What is clear already is that they are busting holes in any containment strategy the US might have had.

   

They have one option that they seem to want to ignore in ad infinitum and that's to give their people what they want. Their freedom back. Then, if their population was happy and content they'd be restive and their gov't wouldn't have had to saddle up with an even more repressive and draconian regime.

But given how the Ayatollah's run Iran, China is likely the only powerful country in the world that would be happy with their methodology and willing to help them continue to keep their people in religious and political chains.

   

There’s a conservative minority of religious nutjobs in Iran who are getting what they want. Anyway, this democratic deficit in the Middle East and Central Asia is not confined to America’s enemies and why should more be expected of them than allies like Egypt or KSA? Trump violated the JCPOA, made Germany et al. do the same and managed to drive Tehran into the hands of a regime that forces Muslims to eat pork and drink alcohol. We used to hear a lot about the chants of Death to America in Iran but Khomeini and his successors detested communism even more. Some achievement.