China still benefits from Russia relationship, even with international reputation at risk: experts
foxnews.comChina still has much to gain from its current relationship with Russia even as the invasion of Ukraine drags on, turning Russia into an international pariah and threatening to rub off on China’s reputation as well. "China has, in effect, doubled down on its support for the Putin war effort, and we saw this, for instance, last month when China's third rank leader went to Moscow, spoke to the State Duma, and in very clear terms, expressed Beijing's support for Russia," Gordon Change, author of "The Coming Collapse of China," told Fox News Digital. "Then, [we] see Jinping himself when he was in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, actually confirmed that endorsement," Chang added. "The only conclusion that we can come to is that Beijing is not backing away from Russia." The China and Russia dynamic has remained a troubling one for the United States since even before the invasion of Ukraine started in March 2022.
Beijing purchased around 100 metric tons of Russian coal in the run-up to the invasion and relaxed Russian wheat imports – all of which helped provide Russia with much-needed cash as Western sanctions hit hard and fast.
But the invasion did not end quickly as many expected it might, and Ukraine has continued to make gains that seemed unbelievable when the invasion started, from taking back key strategic points around Kyiv to pushing back Russia and forcing Moscow to focus only on the easternmost Donbas region.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Thursday, Sept.
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