Transregional Security Impacts of the Special Military Operation and Strategic Interests of the United States and China

The launch of special military operations and a new round of Russia-Ukraine conflict are essentially the outbreak of decades of grievances between Russia and the United States over the issue of NATO's eastward expansion. After the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, the United States entered the "unilateral era" and continued to promote NATO's eastward expansion and strategically squeezed Russia, causing Russia's insecurity to continue to rise. At the same time, this Russia-Ukraine conflict also occurred against the backdrop of the United States’ comprehensive advancement of strategic competition with China. By hyping up the joint statement issued by China and Russia in February 2022 and spreading rumors about China's advance knowledge of its actions against Russia, the United States is trying to direct international pressure on China. Although China is not a party to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the deep-seated impact of the conflict on the global political, economic, and security landscape has gradually spread to China-US relations, and several sets of "big triangle" relationships involving China, such as China-US-Russia, China-US-Europe, and other groups of China-US-EU, are also facing profound adjustments. Globalization and regional security have been further frustrated by geopolitical conflicts, the "economic war" and "political war" between major powers have been deepened, the status of the United Nations has been declining day by day, and the global arms race has suddenly intensified. Based on the Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT), this paper comprehensively analyzes the regional and global impacts of special military operations, geo-security contradictions, and the conflict of interests between the two most important world powers, China and the United States. The Russia-Ukraine conflict will continue to affect the adjustment of strategic interests among major powers, and the prospects of China-Russia cooperation and the Asia-Pacific region will determine the direction of the evolution of the future world pattern.