The limitless relationship has limits. Beijing has not provided material support for Putin’s war effort, nor helped his government and banks evade harsh sanctions.
It has now been a year since President Vladimir Putin sat across from Chinese President Xi Jinping around that huge mahogany table, festooned with flowers, and declared their partnership without limits. In the joint statement after the meeting, Russia expressed its support for China’s position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and in turn China supported Russia in calling for an end to the expansion of NATO among its neighbours.
Purely by chance, of course, less than three weeks after the two leaders embraced, Russian tanks crossed the Ukrainian border, triggering an invasion that would devastate the country and cause a huge humanitarian crisis. The world noticed that China did not back down from this…
