As an unprecedented Israeli attack on Iran last week sparks a spiraling conflict between the two enemy states, China has seen an opportunity to cast itself as potential peace broker – and an alternative voice to the United States.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took up this mission over the weekend, speaking with both his Iranian and Israeli counterparts in separate phone calls, where Wang decried the attack that sparked latest conflict and telegraphed China’s offer to “play a constructive role” in its resolution.

“China explicitly condemns Israel’s violation of Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity … (and) supports Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, defending its legitimate rights and interests,” Wang said in a call Saturday with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, according to Beijing’s official readout.

China’s self-described “explicit” opposition to Israel’s attack stands in sharp contrast to the country’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – which Beijing refused to condemn as it ramped up its close ties with Moscow.

It also underscores the hardening of geopolitical lines that have placed China in opposition to the US across a host of global issues.

Israel launched its aerial attack targeting Iran’s nuclear, missile and military complex early Friday in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was an operation to “roll back” the Iranian threat to his country’s survival.

Multiple waves of deadly assaults launched by both sides in the days since have seen mounting casualties and raised the risk of a broader regional conflagration that could involve the United States, which has so far only assisted in Israel’s defense against an onslaught on Iranian missiles and drones.

In Beijing’s eyes, all this gives ample reason to be outspoken on a conflict playing out in a part of the world where it has steadily worked to increase its own economic and diplomatic sway, but where experts say its heft as a powerbroker remains limited.

‘Play a constructive role’

For one, as the Trump administration’s “America First” policy has shaken up the US’ traditional position on the international stage, Beijing sees an opportunity to further expand its clout. That’s especially true in the context of countries across the Global South, where Israel has received stark condemnation over its ongoing assault on Gaza.

Beijing is also a key diplomatic and economic backer of Iran and has moved to further deepen collaboration in recent years, including holding joint naval drills, even as it’s sought to balance those ties with its growing relations with countries like Saudi Arabia. Chinese officials long voiced opposition to US sanctions on Iran and criticized the US withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, while accusing Washington of being a source of instability and tensions in the region.

Wang took veiled aim at the US in his call with his Iranian counterpart Saturday, according to the Chinese readout of the call, saying that “China also urges the countries that have influence over Israel to make concrete efforts to restore peace.”

“China is ready to maintain communication with Iran and other relevant parties to continue playing a constructive role in de-escalating the situation,” he added.

Speaking to Israeli Foreign Minsiter Gideon Sa’ar on Saturday, Wang said China “urged both Israel and Iran to resolve differences through dialogue” and added “that China is willing to play a constructive role in supporting these efforts,” a Chinese readout said.

Beijing is unlikely to see benefits from the deepening of tensions in the region, which it relies on for energy and where it has looked to show itself as an emerging powerbroker. For example, it took on a surprise role in facilitating a diplomatic rapprochement between archrivals Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023.

It’s unclear what role Beijing could play in the resolution of the current conflict, including how much leverage Beijing has over Tehran, even as lawmakers in Washington have warned of a deepening “axis” between China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.

But when it comes to managing the direction of this escalation of an entrenched regional conflict, chances are that players both within the Middle East and the US – which plays a key role in regional security – will ultimately drive that effort.

Trump on Sunday posted on social media that Iran and Israel “will make a deal,” adding that “many calls and meetings” were “now taking place,” without providing details.

But the US president had also suggested another potential leader could have a role to play brokering peace: Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump said he discussed the escalating situation on Saturday.

In an interview with ABC News, Trump said he was open to the Russian leader, whose forces invaded Ukraine and who has resisted a US-brokered ceasefire in that conflict, serving as a mediator – another sign of the warming ties between Washington and Moscow, which maintains close relations with Tehran and has condemned Israel’s attack.

“I would be open to it,” Trump said. Putin “is ready.”

For the past month Chinese aircraft carrier strike groups have been operating further from home shores and in greater strength than ever before, testing state-of-the-art technology and sending a message they are a force to be reckoned with, analysts and officials say.

Since early May, a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) flotilla led by the carrier Shandong has conducted exercises north of the Philippines; its newest carrier, the soon-to-be commissioned Fujian, has been on sea trials in disputed waters west of the Korean Peninsula; and its oldest carrier, the Liaoning has led exercises in the Pacific waters of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

During the drills the Fujian for the first time conducted aircraft take-off and landing operations at sea using its advanced electromagnetic catapult system (EMALS), regional defense officials said.

That’s a significant development. Only one other carrier in the world has that system – the US Navy’s newest carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford.

Last Monday, the Japanese Defense Ministry said the Shandong and its support ships had been exercising in the waters southeast of the island of Miyako Island in southern Okinawa prefecture, putting two Chinese carrier strike groups in the open Pacific for the first time.

At the center of that box of exercises is Taiwan, the democratically ruled island claimed by China’s Communist Party despite never having controlled it.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to “achieve reunification” with the island, using force if necessary.

Analysts noted that the Pacific exercises specifically covered areas through which US naval support of Taiwan, in the event of conflict there, would have to pass.

“The projection of power is beyond China’s own defensive needs,” the Taiwanese official said, unless it wants to assert the entire first island chain is its internal waters.

The first island chain stretches from Japan to the Philippines and further down to Indonesia as is seen as a strategically vital line to both China and the US.

Some analysts say Beijing may be laying the groundwork for that with so-called “salami slicing” tactics, or pushing its claims and presence in small but unrelenting steps until it’s too late for an opponent to stop them.

Besides Taiwan, the waters inside that first island chain include the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, called the Diaoyus in China and, like Taiwan, claimed by it as sovereign territory.

Chinese maritime forces have been increasing their visibility around those islands. According to statistics from the Japanese Defense Ministry, more than 100 Chinese vessels have appeared in the contiguous zone of the islands – the waters between them – for all but one of the past 24 months.

Also within the first island chain are disputed islands in the South China Sea that have seen violent flare-ups between Chinese and Philippine forces as Beijing tries to aggressively assert its claim over geographical features in the waterway through which trillions of dollars in trade passes each year.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called out Beijing tactics at a recent defense forum in Singapore.

“Any unilateral attempt to change the status quo in the South China Sea and the first island chain by force or coercion is unacceptable,” Hegseth said in a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, noting the persistent PLA presence around Taiwan and harassment and intimidation tactics in the South China Sea.

“It has to be clear to all that Beijing is credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific,” Hegseth said.

Reaching well into the Pacific

While Hegseth focused on China’s activities inside the first island chain, the PLA Navy’s recent movements have it operating carriers beyond the second island chain, which runs from the Japanese main island of Honshu southeast to the US territories of Saipan and Guam and then southwest to Yap, Palau and New Guinea.

Japanese officials reported last week two Chinese carrier groups operating well out into the open Pacific.

“It is believed that China is planning to improve the operational capability of its aircraft carriers and their ability to conduct operations in distant areas of the sea,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said last Monday, noting that China has demonstrated for the first time the ability to operate a carrier in the waters east of Iwo Jima and close to Japan’s easternmost island Minamitorishima.

“The PLA is demonstrating a capability for sustained carrier ops outside of the first island chain. This is certainly a significant milestone for the PLAN,” said Ray Powell, director of SeaLight, a maritime transparency project at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation.

“Beijing is using the PLAN to signal its growing maritime power and willingness to use it,” said Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain and Hawaii-based analyst.

A PLA Navy press release on Tuesday acknowledged the carrier activity in waters well out into the Pacific and emphasized that they are defense-minded.

“The Chinese Navy’s Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carrier formations recently went to the Western Pacific and other waters to conduct training to test the troops’ far sea defense and joint combat capabilities. This is a routine training,” the release quoted Chinese navy spokesperson Wang Xuemeng as saying, adding that the exercises are “not targeting specific countries.”

Overall, Schuster said China is making a very clear statement with the series of exercises.

“Although Beijing has characterized these activities as routine training and trials, its neighbors did not miss the related strategic message: China has become a major naval power that can and will apply that power in their waters if it chooses,” Schuster said.

New ships, new reach

Only one other naval power, the United States, has the capability to operate two or more carrier strike groups at such distances.

US Navy carrier strike groups usually consist of the carrier plus cruisers and/or destroyers equipped with the Aegis missile system to defend the prized asset at their heart.

Analysts noted the Chinese carrier groups in the Pacific have a similar formation and include some of the PLAN’s newest and most powerful surface ships, large Type 055 guided-missile destroyers as well as new but smaller Type 052DM destroyers.

With a displacement of around 12,000 tons, the Type 055s are considered by many naval analysts to be the most powerful surface combatants afloat and a centerpiece of what is now the world’s largest naval force, a title the PLAN took from the US Navy around 2020.

A report Tuesday in the state-run Global Times said the PLAN may be looking to operate carrier strike groups in all the world’s oceans like the US Navy does.

Chinese military affairs expert Zhang Junshe told the tabloid that Beijing’s expanding overseas business and cultural interests justify its naval expansion, including the ability of carriers to operate far from Chinese shores.

New carrier training may be seen in the Indian and Atlantic oceans, Zhang said.

The newest carrier

The Fujian, China’s newest aircraft carrier, is likely to be pivotal in the any PLA Navy plans to operate well out into the Pacific or other oceans.

Estimated to displace 80,000 tons, it’s believed to the largest non-American warship ever built and able to carry a fleet of about 50 aircraft, up from 40 on Liaoning and Shandong.

During its sea trials in the Yellow Sea last month, the Fujian conducted aircraft take-off and landing operations, according to South Korean defense officials.

The trials marked the first time a Chinese carrier had conducted such an activity inside the Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ), a disputed area where China and South Korea have agreed to both oversee fisheries management, but where friction between Beijing and Seoul persists.

The take-off and landing operations are significant as it marks the first time the Fujian has done so at sea, using its electromagnetic catapult system.

The system allows carrier aircraft to take off with heavier weapon and fuel loads than those operating off the Shandong and Liaoning, which feature ski-jump type take-off ramps, enabling Fujian’s aircraft to strike enemy targets from greater distances.

The Fujian is expected to carry the naval version of the J-35, a twin-engine stealth fighter jet that can’t operate off a China’s older carriers.

And China is building another carrier, for now known as the Type 004, which is expected to not only employ EMALS technology, but also – unlike Fujian but like the USS Ford – be nuclear-powered.

Nuclear power will extend the range of Chinese naval air fleet significantly because, as the carrier doesn’t need to be refueled, it can stay at sea longer and farther away from replenishment tankers.

“Beijing’s carrier program, like its fleet, is expanding and improving rapidly, not just with new ships but with new aircraft. That trend signals Beijing’s maritime intent,” Schuster said.

But even with the new equipment and expanded range, analysts expressed caution on overestimating the PLA Navy’s abilities.

Compared to the US, which has been operating carrier strike groups in the far seas for decades, China is very much at the beginning of the learning curve.

“China’s carrier force is still very much developmental at this stage. Still, China is closing the gap,” said Powell, the SeaLight analyst.

On a recent evening in Kyiv, 4-year-old Olexander Reshetnik made a simple suggestion to his parents: “Let’s go to the parking garage now so we can sleep properly, and you don’t have to wake us up twice to take us there and back.”

The family lives on the 18th floor of a high-rise building and getting into the underground garage that doubles as a bomb shelter during Russian attacks is an uncomfortable experience. With aerial attacks becoming more common, it made sense to Oleksander to simply stay there.

Even at his young age, he knew the Russians would likely attack again.

His mother Khrystyna Reshetnik said the family has gotten used to seeing drones being shot down in the skies over Ukraine’s capital. In days gone by there would be one or two, maybe three, but things have changed.

Russia has ramped up its airborne attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks, launching as many as 479 drones and missiles in a single night. These assaults are not just bigger and more frequent; they are also more concentrated and executed in a way that makes them a lot more difficult to combat – as they are flown at higher altitudes, out of reach of machine guns.

Russia ramps up drone production

Russia successfully scaled up the domestic production of its most frequently used drone – the Iranian-designed Shahed – last fall and is now churning out hundreds of these killing machines every day.

Christina Harward, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said that according to current estimates, Moscow can now produce about 2,700 Shahed drones per month, as well as some 2,500 decoy drones.

The fact that some of the drones are decoys makes little difference to the Ukrainian defenses as Moscow has adapted them in a way that makes it very difficult to distinguish them from the real thing.

“So, either Ukrainian forces spend time trying to identify the decoys or they spend precious resources shooting them down. Either way, this helps the Russian missiles and Shaheds – with their large payloads – (as they) have the chance to get through to their targets,” Harward said.

The increased number of drones launched each night is overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses, especially since Russia began to zero in on handful of locations at a time.

On Monday night, it targeted the Ukrainian capital and the Black Sea port city of Odesa. The following night, it was Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Russia maintains that it does not target civilians, but evidence to the contrary continues to mount. At least 154 Ukrainian civilians – including children – have been killed by drones, in Russian missile assaults and by artillery across the country in the last four weeks. A further 900 civilians have been injured.

The deadly attacks are designed to undermine Ukrainian morale and create the illusion that Russia has the upper hand in the war – even though Moscow is far from “winning.”

The front line in Ukraine has not moved in any significant way since Ukrainian forces liberated the southern city of Kherson in November 2023.

Russia has only managed to seize about 5,000 square kilometers (1,900 square miles) of Ukraine’s territory since then. Russian troops have advanced in some areas in eastern and northern Ukraine in recent months but have not managed to break through or take over a major city.

‘Impossible to shoot them down’

Yuriy Chumak spends many of his nights perched on Kyiv’s rooftops, machine gun in hand. A Supreme Court judge by day, he is part of a volunteer drone-hunting unit by night. He said the skies have gotten significantly busier in recent weeks.

He said after Moscow started flying drones at higher altitudes, it has become much harder, if not impossible, for his unit to destroy them.

Previously, Russian forces would fly the drones low, for example along a riverbed, to avoid being detected by Ukraine’s air defenses for as long as possible.

“The time to respond was very short because we only detected it when it was (close),” he said.

These days, he said, Russian drones are flying two to five kilometers (1 to 3 miles) above the ground.

“We can see them all. Radars can track them. But it has become impossible to shoot them down with machine guns,” Chumak said, adding that Ukraine now has to use missiles to thwart them.

But missiles are in much shorter supply. This is pushing Ukrainian forces to find new solutions on the go. Melnyk said that the efficiency of Ukraine’s air defense system remains remarkable. “Even now, about 80% of drones are being intercepted. A few months ago, this percentage was about 95. (But) we can see the impact of Russia increasing the number (of drones) and changing tactics,” he added.

Speaking to reporters last month, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the Ukrainian Air Force and volunteers like Chumak for pivoting as Russia ramped up its air war.

He added that Kyiv was now using drone-to-drone interceptors to combat the higher altitude bombardment. “We have the technology. The question is when we will be able to expand,” he said.

Zelensky said that Russia can produce some 300 to 350 drones a day, while Ukraine can only make 100.

“The issue is no longer about production capacity. It’s financial,” he said.

‘The norm for our children’

Kyiv mom Khrystyna Reshetnik said one of the worst things about the Russian aerial assaults is that they have become commonplace to her three boys, aged 4, 8 and 11. Olexander regularly asks whether the noise he hears is a Kalibr cruise missile or a drone.

“He’s just a little boy and he already understands what’s going on,” Reshetnik said. As the attacks have intensified in size and scope, the family has been spending more time in the underground parking garage, where Olexander and his two brothers sleep in the trunk of their car.

“This has become the norm for our children. It hurts my heart,” she said.

Yet despite the daily horrors they experience, the Reshetniks are among the lucky ones. They live in Kyiv, a city that is relatively well defended. The majority of the explosions they hear are Ukrainian air defenses intercepting Russian drones.

Many others elsewhere around the country are left without protective shields because Ukraine’s access to air defenses is limited by what its Western allies are willing to spare. Closer to the front lines, Russian troops have been using smaller drones to target civilians.

“There is (a) ballistic missile coming, so I am going to go into the shelter. My point is that this is the daily life of Ukrainian citizens and civilians.”

French President Emmanuel Macron is due to land in Greenland Sunday, in a move designed to bolster European support for the Danish territory, which is still batting away advances from the Trump administration to acquire it for the United States.

Macron will be the first foreign leader to visit the resource-rich island since US President Donald Trump began his campaign to buy or annex Greenland, which he insists the US needs for national security purposes.

A source at the Élysée Palace said that the French president’s trip had a “dimension of European solidarity and one of strengthening sovereignty and territorial integrity,” without mentioning the Trump administration’s threats to purchase Greenland, or take it by force.

Additionally, Macron’s visit would focus on Arctic security, climate change and Greenland’s economic development, the source added.

During his time on the world’s biggest island the French leader will tour a glacier, a hydroelectric power station and a Danish warship moored near the semiautonomous territory’s capital, Nuuk, per the Élysée.

“The deeps are not for sale, any more than Greenland is for sale, any more than Antarctica or the high seas are for sale,” Macron said on June 9 as he opened a United Nations conference on the oceans in Nice, France.

Trump’s intentions for Greenland can’t be far from the French president’s thoughts on his first visit to the Arctic territory, which Macron will conduct alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s political leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in January that Paris had “started discussing (the deployment of French troops) with Denmark,” but that Copenhagen did not want to proceed with the idea.

Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in buying the island, or the US taking it by military or economic coercion, even as NATO ally Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea. Last month, the US president renewed his threat of using military force to annex the territory.

US Vice President JD Vance also made a stopover to visit American troops in Greenland in late March. During that trip, the vice president made a high-profile case for US control of the island. He said Greenland would be better off “coming under the United States’ security umbrella than you have been under Denmark’s security umbrella.”

In a move widely seen as an effort to ease American ambitions for the territory, on June 12 Denmark’s parliament widened a military agreement with Washington to allow US bases on Danish soil. US soldiers had previously been based at Danish facilities.

Denmark is also moving to bolster its military presence in Greenland, some 1,500 miles from the Danish mainland, including with fighter jets to patrol the western coastline toward the US and a navy frigate, per Greenland’s parliament.