The two top spy chiefs of China and Russia met in Moscow on Monday. Nikolai Patrushev is secretary of Russia's national security council, and Chen Wenqing leads China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. That commission supervises communist China's intelligence, legal, and security operations.
On paper, this meeting was focused on liaison cooperation. A Russian national security council readout noted that Patrushev and Chen were joined "by representatives of the ministries and departments of the two countries." That's notable. It means that the two chiefs were likely joined by senior officers from China's Ministry of State Security, which Chen previously headed, and the Russian Federal Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Service, Spetssvyaz, and GRU services.
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While these respective Russian and Chinese services retain a cultural attachment to distrusting each other, their engagement bears U.S. attention. Top line: Chen and Patrushev hold deeply antagonistic views toward the United States. Indeed, Patrushev's venomous anti-Americanism borders on the surreal. But these men also hold the trusted ear of their respective leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Put simply, the content of this meeting almost certainly entailed nothing positive for the West.
What might that mean in practice?
Notably, Chen and Patrushev discussed "international information security." This is a reference to Beijing and Moscow's shared interest in disrupting Western intelligence operations targeting their networks. They may also have discussed improving their own offensive collaboration, which remains limited. But even if only marginal, any greater Sino-Russian willingness to share cyber tactics and techniques would be of U.S. concern.
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While Patrushev, quite ludicrously, claimed that this cooperation is "not directed against third countries," the Russian readout noted that "the dialogue held in this format is an integral and in-demand element of the Russian-Chinese comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction." This statement might be worth the attention of Western leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who in justification for their trade-motivated appeasement of Beijing continue to pretend that China has an interest in substantially pressuring Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
On the contrary, this meeting is a reminder that America's two most preeminent adversaries are, if not allies, significantly deepening their cooperation.