China underwrites that partnership by purchasing roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports and supplying dual-use technologies essential to Iranian missile and drone production. Pressure against Russian and Iranian networks in the Middle East and Africa directly reduces Moscow’s capacity to sustain the war in Ukraine. Competition with China in the Indo-Pacific, Russia’s war in Europe, and instability across the Middle East are all one battle. The US should not approach each independently, but strength our own alliances — with Europe, Israel, the Gulf states and Ukraine. Each weakens a different component of the Russia-Iran-China axis — and makes sure the US vision of a free world prevails again.