China is forging a menacing alliance with other hostile regimes against the West and is growing as a prominent threat challenging U.S.-led democracies across diverse arenas in the Indo-Pacific theatre, experts warned at a recent international security forum.
Political and military leaders shared this perspective during two panel discussions at the 2023 Halifax International Security Forum (HFX) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Nov. 17–19, which introduced a new acronym, “CRINKs,” to describe the alliance between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.