The Russia-China alliance is shades of the Hitler-Stalin alliance of 1939. Both are power hungry nations that don't really trust each other and have border issues. Nations like Vietnam favor Russia and don't like China, others vice versa. Both are courting African and S American nations, sometimes at cross purposes. Look for one or the other to eventually "sell-out" to the West, in order to screw the other one (as means to gain territory, as Soviets did in WW II?)