China is shoring up ties with autocratic partners like Russia and Iran, as well as economically dependent regional countries, while using sanctions and threats to try to fracture the alliances the United States is building against it. Worryingly for Beijing, diplomats and analysts say, the Biden administration has got other democracies to toughen up to a rising, more globally assertive China on human rights and regional security issues like the disputed South China Sea. “China is very worried about US alliance diplomacy,” said Dr Li Mingjiang, Associate Professor at RSIS in Singapore, pointing to what he calls attempts to “huddle for warmth” with governments shunned by the West.