The People’s Republic of China is the major wild card for the world’s economic and geopolitical future in both the short and medium terms. This has only been reinforced by two recent developments, one in the security realm and one economic. The first was the somewhat tense meeting between the foreign ministers of the United States and China, which was followed by the US making the startling claim that China was preparing to send military aid to Russia to support its invasion of Ukraine. China’s response predictably refuted the claim. This came also at a time when US President Joe Biden made an unannounced trip to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. While the Western alliance has been arming Ukraine after the Russian invasion last year, the Russian Federation has been dependent upon countries like Iran and North Korea. The availability of Chinese lethal weaponry would significantly change the dynamics, and make the war look much more like Cold War-era proxy conflict