China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly told the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas on July 3 that the country cannot afford for Russia to lose the war in Ukraine amid fears the U.S. would shift focus towards Beijing, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported, citing sources familiar with the conversation.
That is a startlingly weak position for China to be in.
Not really startling. No big player other than Russia has ever been on China’s side RE Taiwan.
I feel like Russian support is pretty much a rounding error when it comes to Chinese power.
All the better if they can use foreign troops in the meat grinder. Like Russia has been using North Korean troops for.
Yeah but their violence in Ukraine dilutes NATO military attention, even if they aren’t that powerful a direct military ally.
I suspect the concern is that no one, including China itself knows how strong they would be in a military conflict, since they haven’t been in an at scale conflict in living memory, using economic power instead to great effect.
If they are really wanting to violently assert their view on Taiwan, they want global attention divided.