There's no question that the so-called authoritarian states could in fact form an alliance, even a tight alliance, against the democracies. Such a development would be very bad. In fact, there's historical evidence that the same kind of thing, for example, preceded World War I.
Now, the initiative seems to be on the Russia side, because of the sanctions that have been used against it and because of, in fact, the response to its actions in Ukraine and Crimea and elsewhere. The Chinese are interested in access to Russian technology, the best weapons technology that the Russians have. That's kind of the trade-off. So far, I don't think we see a tight alliance relationship; rather we see discussion and coordination. That's something to be watched. If such an alliance were to emerge, I would say it would be a bellwether of difficult times ahead.