At Wednesday’s press conference at Trump Tower in New York, his first since winning the election, Donald Trump was grilled by reporters about allegations that Russia meddled in the election to help him defeat Hillary Clinton. The president-elect’s response?

“China.”

Time and again, when the press asked him about Russia, Trump responded by deflecting attention to China:

As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. And I—I can say that you know when—when we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn’t make a big deal out of that. That was something that was extraordinary. That was probably China... Within 90 days, we will be coming up with a major report on hacking defense, how do we stop this new phenomena—fairly new phenomena because the United States is hacked by everybody. That includes Russia and China and everybody—everybody. OK... We have to work something out, but it’s not just Russia. Take a look at what’s happened. You don’t report it the same way; 22 million accounts were hacked in this country by China. And that’s because we have no defense. That’s because we’re run by people that don’t know what they’re doing... But Russia and other countries—and other countries, including China, which has taken total advantage of us economically, totally advantage of us in the South China Sea by building their massive fortress, total. Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, all countries will respect us far more, far more than they do under past administrations.

It’s no surprise that Trump would employ this rhetorical move. While his friendliness toward President Vladimir Putin has raised hackles in his own party, particularly among Senate hawks like Lindsey Graham and John McCain, Trump is on more firm footing with China, since most Republicans are also wary of the country. A hardline stance on China is Trump’s way to keep the party united behind him on foreign policy, and moreover, it helps him advance his case for trade protectionism, as he cast China during his campaign as the biggest threat to the American economy.

Beyond trade, Trump’s pairing of Russia and China points to a potential revolution in U.S. foreign policy. Since the Nixon administration, which started the process of normalizing diplomatic relations with mainland China, the U.S. has often used China as a check against Russian power. This was particularly true during the 1970s and 1980s, but to this day, despite tensions over issues like island building in the South China Sea, America remains closer to China than to Russia, especially economically. Trump would upend this dynamic and create a world where America and Russia are the dominant superpowers, working together to hod China in check.