https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-xi-calls-maximum-restraint-ukraine-2022-03-08/
In classic Chinese fashion, China has found ways to officially call itself neutral in the Russian invasion of Ukraine while still taking clearly non-neutral actions. While they do declare themselves partners with Russia (this avoids actually labeling themselves as allies of Russia), they have called for peace talks to be facilitated by Germany, France, and itself to negotiate for an end to the violence. Meanwhile, China has asserted that the sanctions placed upon Russia in an international effort to force Russia to surrender and pull out of Ukraine are illegal and a crime that hurts the overall world economy, damaging every state. China is mainly concerned for itself and its own trade balances upon which it heavily relies as a prominent exporter and importer. The relationship between Russia and China has been a finicky one, with ties built out of convenience and their mutual opponents: Europe and the United States. Up until the war, China had been warming its relations with Russia and benefiting off of Putin’s aggression towards the European Union, particularly by his troop build up on Ukraine’s border because it put pressure on the United States and its allies without any direct effort from China. Now, however, the gravity of being at all friendly with Russia has drastically changed, and by standing with Russia, China runs the risk of directing the already brimming anger of many of its vital trade partners unto itself.
By now, China has become a critical reason why Russia’s economy has not fully collapsed as it is one of the few countries that are still willing to trade with Russia more so than absolutely necessary. More specifically, China is also the biggest country still willing to prop up Russia as it withstands more and more blows every day. However, Russia cannot survive off of economic help from China alone and China likely won’t go to extremes in order to stave off Russia’s collapse. While it would be devastating to their enemies if China and Russia were to fully combine their powers, their own rivalry is preventing that from happening. China wants to establish itself and still has the mindset of being a rising power as they believe they are growing to replace the United States in the world hegemony. China wants a bipolar or even unipolar system, and it doesn’t particularly want to share a bipolar system with Russia and vice versa. Having a friendship born from convenience out of shared enemies is only viable for so long and China has so many ethnic, historical, and ideological differences with Russia that their attempts in the past to coexist in an alliance have never brought to fruition the powerful team they could be.
Concerning Russia’s economy, I think that this is a great example of China’s overwhelming economic power. With the war in Ukraine, a war across the world has started through the form of sanctions that have hit Russia about as hard as any tank or bomb. Rather than moving actual pieces around a chessboard, instead attacks and defensive maneuvers are being made and calculated with the web of international trade. Whether owning up to it or not, China is undoubtedly helping Russia fight this war and survive its near exile from the global economy. Luckily for China, to be in a trade war, the actual declaration of war isn’t required.