America’s foremost enemies are massing their talents and strengths. U.S. political leaders, however, have yet to name, let alone begin to counter, the growing threat from the “Axis of Aggressors” — China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
The axis is working together to murder Americans and our allies.
Chinese firms reportedly supplied high-resolution satellite images to Iran that it used to attack Muwaffaq Salti Air Base on July 17, killing three U.S. troops and injuring four others.
Several commentators noted the unusual precision of Iran’s missile and drone strikes and suggested that China or Russia, longtime allies of Iran, were providing targeting information. That suspicion has been confirmed, and it is important that there be punishing consequences.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned the Islamic Republic that “every time Iran kills an American soldier, they will pay for that killing many times over.” But when the president was asked on Sunday about the report detailing China’s involvement, he evaded the question, replying merely that “China spies on us” just “as we spy on them. … They basically do what we do.”
Trump wants to avoid escalating tensions before his Sept. 24 summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but appeasement is a bad bet.
China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea all want to upend the U.S.-led world order. In June 2025, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned Congress that Beijing, Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang are “pursuing unprecedented levels of cooperation.”
A new book by Mark Montgomery, Brad Bowman, and Eliana Dezenski of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies labels this band of autocracies an Axis of Aggressors.
The Commission on the National Defense Strategy noted in 2024 that “this new alignment of nations opposed to U.S. interests creates a real risk, if not likelihood, that conflict anywhere could become a multi-theater or global war.”
The Pentagon worries about what it calls a “simultaneity problem,” which is the possibility that it could face wars with several opponents on more than one front. The last time this happened was during World War II, when America and its allies confronted another Axis.
The United States had a “two-front” strategy afterward until then-President Barack Obama ended it in 2012. Now our enemies believe America lacks the means and will to fight on several fronts, and they are trying to take advantage of this diminishment.
In February 2022, Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia pledged themselves to a “no-limits partnership.” Days later, Putin invaded Ukraine. That war has been sustained by Chinese money, advisers, and infrastructure, North Korean troops, and Iranian drones.
This cooperation is not charity. Each regime has regional ambitions and an interest in stretching American resources and attention. China wants mastery of the Indo-Pacific, Iran seeks hegemony in the Middle East, and North Korea wants the entire Korean Peninsula.
Russian officials hosted Hamas leaders 19 days after the terrorist group massacred 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Russia and China have helped Iran and its proxies in their war against Israel and the West.
The Houthis, a Yemen-based Iranian proxy, are again disrupting shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb, chokepoints for oil and other essential globally traded commodities. They have a long-standing policy of not targeting Russian and Chinese ships, knowing that Iranian and Russian oil, bought at steep discounts by China, lines their pockets and allows them to evade American sanctions.
U.S. policymakers must recognize our enemies’ shared objective, and our strategy must reflect it. Strategy flows from presidential pronouncements and actions. Trump should not slap conditions on arms sales to Taiwan if Xi asks him to. He should condemn China for its role in murdering American troops, and he should sanction the Chinese entities responsible.
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The U.S. should punish China directly for its illegal oil trade and offer more help to Israel and Ukraine in their wars against Beijing’s allies.
The axis knows what it wants. We must be clear-eyed about who its members are.