Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping “reaffirmed their ‘no limits’ partnership,” reports the Associated Press. That partnership is both worrisome and natural. Putin is waging an annihilationist war against the Ukrainians; Xi is committing a genocide against the Uyghurs. (The U.S. State Department has designated Beijing’s persecution of the Uyghurs a “genocide.”) Putin and Xi lead two of the most evil regimes of modern times. Their partnership is bad news for the world at large.

• RFE/RL (America’s combination of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty) reports the following: “In a state visit rich in symbolism,” Putin “will go to Harbin, a northeastern Chinese city with deep cultural and historic links to Russia.” An interesting story.

• Again, from the AP:

Russia and China are helping each other expand their territorial reach, and democracies must push back against authoritarian states that threaten their rights and sovereignty, Taiwan’s outgoing foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said.

More from that report:

Wu called on democracies to align in countering Russia and China’s military assertiveness in Europe, the South China Sea, and beyond. China threatens to invade Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that it claims as its own territory.

“Putin’s visit to Beijing is an example of the two big authoritarian countries supporting each other, working together with each other, supporting each other’s expansionism,” he said.

Yes. That is well stated.

A bit more, from the report:

In particular, Wu called on Western powers to continue to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia to send a message that democracies will defend one another.

“If Ukraine is defeated at the end, I think China is going to get inspired, and they might take even more ambitious steps in expanding their power in the Indo-Pacific, and it will be disastrous for the international community,” Wu said.

Isn’t it obvious?

• R. Nicholas Burns, our ambassador to China, noted that the Department of Homeland Security “added 26 PRC-based textile companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.” The U.S. goal, said Burns, is this: “no forced labor in our supply chains and accountability for human-rights abuses against Uyghurs and others in Xinjiang.”

To read the DHS announcement, go here.

• About two weeks ago, Xi Jinping traveled to Budapest, to meet with Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian leader. I discussed this in a column last week. Orbán said that he had formed “a strategic partnership” with the PRC. He also said, “China is one of the pillars of the new world order.”

Orbán has very friendly relations with China, Russia, and Iran. This does not sit well with Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate. Last Thursday, he issued a broadside against Orbán on the Senate floor.

McConnell said,

This week, Putin is in Beijing, tending to what Russia and China have called a “friendship without limits.” But last week, it was President Xi who took to the road. And notably, his warmest welcome was in Budapest, Hungary.

Yes.

McConnell continued,

Viktor Orbán’s government has cultivated the PRC as its top trading partner outside the EU. It has given Beijing sweeping law-enforcement authority to hunt dissidents on Hungarian soil.

And so on.

McConnell said that Orbán has “cozied up to America’s greatest strategic adversaries” — meaning China, Russia, and Iran. Almost as an aside, he said, “I didn’t think conservatives had any time for those who suck up to Iran.”

To read the senator’s speech, his broadside, in full, go here.

It is remarkable that a Republican leader has confronted the behavior of Viktor Orbán. Orbán is a darling of the Republican Party, of course, and of the American Right in general. He is far more popular in the GOP than McConnell is. Orbán is a star at CPAC — indeed, he has hosted CPAC gatherings. He is a toast of the Heritage Foundation. He is the object of continual praise in the Republican media.

Campaigning in New Hampshire earlier this year, Donald Trump said, “There’s a great man, a great leader, in Europe, Viktor Orbán.” Trump went on in this vein. Orbán, he said, “is a very great leader, very strong man.”

Mitch McConnell is a pre-modern Republican. He is an old conservative in an era of right-wing populism. I appreciate his voice more than ever.

• Not quite every day, and not even every other day, but several times a month I read an obit of a World War II hero. Or a Holocaust survivor. They are in their 90s and 100s. Did you see this? “Bud Anderson, Last of World War II’s ‘Triple Ace’ Pilots, Dies at 102.” Anderson “single-handedly shot down 16 enemy planes in dogfights over Europe.” After the war, “he became one of America’s top test pilots during the ‘Right Stuff’ era.”

What a stud. Total stud. (I have quoted from the obit in the New York Times, here.) God bless them all.

• Another obit in the Times: “Jon Urbanchek, Who Led Swimmers to Olympic Glory, Dies at 87.” The subheading of the obit reads as follows: “He coached the University of Michigan to 13 Big Ten Conference titles and a national championship. Overall, his swimmers won 21 medals at the Summer Olympics.”

Jon Urbanchek was born János Urbancsok in Hungary. When he was 20, during the revolution, he got out.

I saw him once, maybe in the early 1990s, in a University of Michigan athletic facility. It was the dead of winter — icy outside — and he had come to run laps on the track. I said, “Coach, do you also swim laps?” Oh, no, he said. “Too boring.”

A memorable statement, from one of the best swimming coaches in the world.

• Another one: “Dabney Coleman, Actor Audiences Loved to Hate, Is Dead at 92.” He starred in a TV show, short-lived: Buffalo Bill. I remember something that Brandon Tartikoff said, in an interview. Tartikoff was the head of NBC Entertainment. He often got letters from viewers, furious that their favorite show had been canceled. He explained in the interview: These decisions are ratings-driven. They don’t have to do with the personal tastes of executives. For instance, he had to cancel his own favorite show: Buffalo Bill.

• There are people who believe that Charles Barkley is a national treasure. You can’t blame them. Here is a video of a recent golf match. Charles leaves a putt short. He says to himself, “Damn, fat boy. All that a** and you can’t hit it far enough.” (This moment comes at about 2:45, in the video.)

A memory of mine — another one. In the late 1980s, Rickie Mahorn was acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers. (He had been on my team, the Detroit Pistons.) Barkley was on that team in Philadelphia. A reporter asked him, “What do you think of Mahorn joining you guys?” Barkley answered, “I like it. At last, I don’t have the biggest behind on the team.”

• Care for some music? Seong-jin Cho, the young Korean pianist, played a recital in Carnegie Hall. For my review, go here.

• Last Thursday, I recorded a Q&A podcast with Richard Brookhiser. He has written many books about the Founding and our Founders. His latest is about John Trumbull, “painter of the Revolution,” as Rick’s subtitle says. In addition to being a historian, Rick is a journalist, and a career-long one, and of course a first-rate one. Toward the end of our conversation, I think, I asked him whether his knowledge of the Founders informed his journalism — his writing about current affairs. It works the other way around, he answered: Current politics helps him understand previous politics better.

As I told him, he reminded me of a wonderful professor of U.S. history I had: Shaw Livermore Jr. Professor Livermore began a course something like this: “Why do we study history? The common answer is, ‘Because you have to know about the past to understand the present.’ Actually, it’s at least as true that the present helps you understand the past. In any case, a big reason we study history is that it’s fun — and there’s no shame in that.”

Richard Brookhiser agreed (and I agree, for what it’s worth).

• Central Park is redolent with blooms — these, for instance:

• As regular readers may know, I have a thing for advertising. I like the slogans, the jingles — the field as a whole. “Relax boldly” — a good phrase, a good concept, I thought. Sort of oxymoronic. Interesting. Kudos.

I hope you have a good day, my friends — relaxing boldly or whatever it is that strikes you as right just now. Later.

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