Larry Johnson sums up what the Sino-Russia alliance means.

This is a game changer. The world we have known will no longer have the United States as the first among equals. In the same way that World War II marked the end of the British imperial empire, today’s events in Moscow are a death knell for the United States being able to act as the global policeman who imposes order on unruly countries.

Allowing foreigners to run an empire at your expense is very expensive.