Convergence of Interests Is Creating a New China-Iran-Russia-North Korea ‘Axis of Evil’: Expert

(L) Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani heads a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 11, 2019. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP). (R) Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping attends a meeting with delegates from the 2019 New Economy Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Nov. 22, 2019. Jason Lee-Pool/Getty Images

Merging interests are motivating China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea to increasingly work together and create an alternative world order, said Frank Gaffney, executive chairman of the Center for Security Policy.

“One might call it an axis of evil between China, which is the most important player in the mix, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, too. Those four are now working hand in glove to bring about a new world order. [That] is a hackneyed phrase, but I think it’s what they strive for,” Gaffney said in an interview on Oct. 24 with NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

China’s increasingly aggressive communist regime has speedily allied with despotic powers around the world, causing concerns about a second cold war between two competing blocks led by it and the United States.

“They wish to dominate the world for evil, and we are the impediment to their realization of that ambition,” said Gaffney, adding that the Center for Security Policy recently published a book, titled “The CCP is at War with America,” which explains how China wants to obtain the status of a sovereign of the world.

“So they are collaborating on the ground in Ukraine. They’re doing nuclear weapons, simulated attacks in places like Russia and China. They are collaborating in buying up Russian oil that’s sanctioned, Iranian oil that’s sanctioned, and, in some cases, moving it to the rest of the world to the profit of China and the sanctioned nations.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who recently secured an unprecedented third term, is scheduled to meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the G20 summit next week in Bali. This will also be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office.

President Ebrahim Raisi (R) and China's minister of national defense, Wei Fenghe (L), greet at the presidency office in Tehran, Iran, on April 27, 2022. Iranian Presidency Office via AP

Totalitarian Powers

China and its allies share a common attitude toward their people, which Gaffney called “contemptuous, obviously brutally repressive.” He particularly highlighted Iran because of the negotiations on the new nuclear deal with the United States and the increasing protests against the Iranian Khomeini regime.

Iran and China consider “their people to be expendable, and especially if they evidence any hostility towards their regimes, they’re likely to be treated very badly, indeed. And it means that what’s going on in Iran is all the more extraordinary; at the moment, people are standing up to this regime very courageously, the regime is lashing out,” said Gaffney, a former Reagan administration official.

Iran has witnessed nationwide protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who allegedly died in suspicious circumstances after she was arrested for improperly wearing her hijab. In a rare move, the Iranian regime deployed a posse of police on horseback in capital streets to curb the demonstrations, according to a video posted on social media and verified by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

United Nations experts have verified that thousands of people have been rallying in daily demonstrations after Amini’s death. The suppression of protesters includes alleged arbitrary arrests and detentions, gender-based and sexual violence, excessive use of force, torture, and enforced disappearances, according to a release by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Gaffney compared it with what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did with the student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and said that both the Chinese and the Iranian regimes have made it clear that those who are not with them are expendable.

Protesters chant slogans during a protest over the death of a woman who was detained by the morality police, in downtown Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 21, 2022. Obtained by AP

“And you’re likely to be snuffed at will,” he said, adding that the United States should support the Iranian people’s struggle against the authoritarian regime and work to delegitimize it.

“People have been mostly set on trying to negotiate some sort of new deal concerning nuclear weapons in Iran that, you know, wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on. But nonetheless, it’s a fixation, particularly for the Biden administration,” said Gaffney.

He hoped for a formal termination of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States because he said it would give legitimacy to the Iranian regime.

“And that will clear the way, among other things, for us to take much more concerted steps to support the people of Iran with sanctions, with visual and public expressions of support, and otherwise to accomplish this goal, which they clearly aspire to. And we will benefit from [it] tremendously as well if it’s accomplished,” said Gaffney.

‘Act Now’

The Center for Security Policy has put together a “CCP challenge” on its website that identifies how the United States can counter the challenges posed by the CCP in six different ways, said Gaffney.

“The first is to recognize that they [CCP] are a mortal enemy, a transnational criminal organization, and that they must be defeated by us. The second is to adopt a war footing akin to what the Chinese have done to prepare for conflict and to otherwise ensure that we can withstand what they may have in mind for us,” he said.

Disengaging from the China-based supply chain dependencies is the third way, and building a strong military is the fourth. “We need to rebuild our military. It is in sad shape at the moment, I’m afraid, and getting worse by the day for a whole host of reasons,” said Gaffney, claiming that the Biden administration has contributed to the state of affairs.

He said the CCP compromises many people in positions of influence or high office in the country, and the fifth way to counter the CCP is to ensure that these people resign.

“Finally, six: We need to stop underwriting the Chinese Communist Party. We are making possible the war that they are waging against us, currently [in] an unrestricted pre-kinetic form. But unfortunately, it seems increasingly likely that it will take a kinetic form in the near future,” said Gaffney.