CHINA HAS NO ALLIES, ONLY DEPENDENTS
**China has no allies. She only has dependents.**
This principle is central to east asian thought. There are no equals. In all circumstances someone is superior and another is subordinate.
When confucius could not solve the problem of politics he directed all men to organize into a paternal hierarchy, from the emperor on down to the new born child.
When chinese history says ‘middle kingdom’ they mean ‘the center of the world’ with them at the top.
Chinese thought requires the preservation of harmony – meaning non disruption of the status hierarchy. Even if that means doing everything possible to avoid speaking the truth.
Chinese strategy, is to delay and deceive, while building up offensive and defensive capability, until a competitor can no longer even negotiate, but simply obey.
This is a very paternal model of thought. It is not necessarily a bad one, for the simple reason that chinese pursuit of harmony, and parenting is somewhat grounded in their (rather questionable) morality.
That said, they will kill millions of their own happily if necessary, and have far less regard for human life than westerners (or indo europeans in general) do or can even imagine.
So no, **China has no allies, she has only enemies, subordinates, and candidate subordinates.**
This is all you really need to understand about Chinese policy, culture, and civilization. Just as heroism sovereignty, reciprocity and truth are all you need to understand the west. In this sense we are not very compatible civilizations.