This month, the friendship appeared to break new ground. The statement marked the first time that China has supported Russia’s demand for an end to NATO expansion. By signing onto the text, Russia also supported China’s claim to Taiwan and both sides said they were “seriously concerned” about the U.S. decision to forge a military alliance with Britain and Australia and to cooperate “in the field of nuclear-powered submarines.”

President Putin and President Xi might not be natural allies, but they have an awful lot in common. Both see the United States as a chaotic hegemon. Both men were profoundly shaken by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which they viewed as a cautionary tale of what not to do. Both have clamped down hard on dissent and dispensed with or circumvented presidential term limits, paving the way for the potential to rule for life.

And both, longing to restore their countries’ role as great powers, are striving to recover territory that they see as having been lost to the West: Ukraine, in Russia’s case, and Taiwan, in the case of China.