danny russell is the vice president for international security in diplomacy at the asia society policy institute. and he joins me now from new york. appreciate you being with us. >> happy to join you, rosemary. >> so, tensions between the united states and china are heating up in the wake of the spy balloon incident. and beijing now considering sending lethal support to russia for its war in ukraine. on wednesday, we saw president xi jinping visiting putin ally belarusian president lukashenko, sending a clear message of strengthening ties between beijing and moscow. you've studied china for many years. where do you see all of this going? >> well, rosemary, i think the chinese are trying to do several things in terms of diplomacy. they recently reached out to the europeans, to chancellor slots in germany, to macron, they met with president biden in bali. they're working on the developing countries, trying to position china as a champion of global south. but importantly, they're going after their partners in the autocratic world. obviously russia, but also countries like iran, whose pres