It's insane, but the US might be more aligned with Russia now than China is. I've been thinking for the last few months that China is really in a position to gain quite a lot of soft power and geopolitical clout if they present themselves as a sane alternative to the US in the Ukraine negotiations. But Europe should be very careful, as China will only have its own interest in mind.
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China has been a decisive supporter of Russia's war since the war began, and even think that former Soviet-countries have no legal independent status as one of China's envoys openly admitted not long ago. They just try to gain advantage of the situation, but Beijing is arguing in bad faith.
China is a supporter of China. They'll readily drop Russia in a heartbeat if the advantages outweigh the advantages of supporting them (cheap oil and gas). I don't think they ideologically care about supporting Russia. Historically, the relations between them were never very good.
Don't forget that a lot of the Russian colaboration was an anti-West sentiment.
With Trump being able to smell what Putin had for breakfast, but also ramping up the Chinese trade war, those positions are no longer as aligned.
And with recent economical aversion of chinese influence growing in Europe, they could use a backup plan to maintain access to the European market
Yes, I fully agree. Beijing aims at gaining a large chunk of what today belongs to the Russian Federation, it's supporting Putin's war (and closely watching the West's reaction to it) as they are heading for a war with Taiwan ... but whatever they do, the regime in Beijing is neither Europe nor anyone else's friend.
I bet China had this already all in mind. The fullscale Russian invasion in Ukraine started on 24 February 2022, just 4 days after the Winter Olympics in Beijing ended. That's not really a coincidence according to CNN.
" A Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials in early February requested that senior Russian officials wait until after the Beijing Olympics had finished before beginning an invasion into Ukraine, US officials said Wednesday"
I wouldn't trust China. More than likely trying to serve its interests seeing Russia is going down like an airliner with no more engines.
China also has no interests in an Unified Europe. It would undermine its efforts to place its pawns like they are doing with car manufacturers or that private police force in Hungary.
Fuck off Xi, no one wants you here.