The biggest story breaking on Friday was clearly the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the existential threat that may pose to America’s economy and possibly the global marketplace as well. But as the New York Post pointed out yesterday, the downfall of SVB may not carry the same long-term impact as another story that received far less attention. Friday was also the day that Saudi Arabia announced that it has restored its diplomatic ties with Iran. Making the announcement even more worrying is the fact that the deal was brokered by China. The possible upside to the story is that such an agreement may mark an end to (or at least a significant decrease in) the ongoing proxy war that the two nations have been fighting in Yemen. The obvious downside is that the Saudis will be pulled more closely into the Axis of Evil that has grown around China and Russia.

Seen from the long run, however, [the collapse of SVB] was probably not the most important event of the day.

The honor goes to the announcement that Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations.

Given their long proxy war in Yemen and fierce sectarian hatred, the sudden agreement (right) was stunning.

Even more so because China brokered it.

Foreign policy analysts immediately recognized the stunning announcement as yet another indicator of the Chinese Communist Party’s “ambition of offering an alternative to a US-led world order.” And Saudi Arabia is an impressive addition to that coalition indeed. Keep in mind that the Saudis are still tied with Russia as the second-largest producer of oil, pumping out 11% of the world’s supply. (America is still at number one – for now, anyway – with 20%.) They also control vast deposits of natural gas, iron, gold, and copper.

A firm alliance between Saudi Arabia and Iran also leaves Iraq in a delicate position. The country where we supposedly planted the seeds of democracy has already been falling further into Iran’s orbit lately. Having an Iranian ally on their southern border will increase the pressure on Iraq to pick sides, and they are not a sure bet to stick with the United States.

When you consider how increasingly cozy Turkey has become with Russia lately, we could be looking at a significant and influential portion of the world being tied up in an anti-American coalition led by the Chinese and the Russians. And speaking of China and Russia, there was another story that flew under the radar yesterday. Huang Ping has been the head of the Chinese consulate in New York for the past five years and he has close ties to New York Governor Kathy Hochul for some reason. But yesterday he used his social media presence to promote the need for closer ties between his country and Russia for the purpose of increasing “multipolarity and global strategic balance.”

A Chinese official linked to New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who praised China’s ruling Communist Party as “great” and dismissed reports of systematic persecution against minorities inside China as “lies,” amplified a tweet this week saying it is crucial for his country and Russia to improve relations.

Huang Ping, who has been the consul general of China’s New York Consulate since 2018, retweeted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson and Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Hua Chunying, who called on China and Russia to work closer together.

“With China and Russia working together, the world will have the driving force toward multipolarity and greater democracy in international relations, and global strategic balance and stability will be better ensured,” wrote Hua. “The more unstable the world becomes, the more imperative it is for China and Russia to steadily advance their relations.”

You won’t need a magnifying glass to read between the lines here. A Chinese official located right in the heart of America’s largest city is openly calling for an alliance with Russia to “challenge the United States,” as Avril Haines recently put it. And he’s willing to say that in the middle of a war that Russia started and a global economic war against them that appears to be sputtering. We may not be on a direct course to the third world war (fingers crossed), but we could easily be settling into a new cold war. And it’s shaping up to be one where the United States and NATO could hold a significantly weaker position. Imagine if all of the countries I listed above suddenly decided to open up their own version of economic warfare against the United States and western Europe. They could damage us a lot more than we’ve been able to damage Russia thus far.