The price China won't pay for Russia's war


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
If there's some good news coming out of Russian President Vladimir Putin's misbegotten war on Ukraine, it might be this: China's alliance with Russia appears to be mostly lip service.
That wasn't a sure bet. Just days before the invasion — during the Beijing Olympics — Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping issued a joint statement declaring a kind of team-up against U.S. power and NATO expansion, vowing cooperative efforts to assert some control over the internet and (more positively) fight climate change.
"Friendship between the two states has no limits, there are no 'forbidden' areas of cooperation," the statement said. As it turns out, there are some limits.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Reuters reported Thursday China is refusing to supply needed airplane parts to the Russian aviation industry, which has already been badly squeezed by American-led sanctions. That's a big deal: Boeing and Airbus jets make up most of the country's commercial aviation fleet — without access to those Western companies, Russia had hoped to turn to China as an alternative. But this week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Chinese companies could be penalized for evading the sanctions. Now Russia might go begging for parts and help from Turkey and India.
China has also eased its controls on government exchange rates, letting the fast-collapsing value of the ruble fall against the yuan even more quickly. The ruble's decline was already making it much more expensive for Russians to buy Chinese goods — companies like Huawei and Xiaomi have cut their smartphone exports to Russia as a result — and now that process will only accelerate. For China, though, the decision makes sense: Sticking with the old rules "would require China's central bank to subsidize Russian buyers of Chinese goods by giving them more yuan for their rubles than market forces said Moscow's currency was worth," The Associated Press notes.
All of this doesn't mean Xi has abandoned Putin. China's foreign minister this week said relationships between the two countries are "rock solid," and China's state media outlets are amplifying Russian propaganda about the war. "That China has chosen to follow Russia's lead in deliberately mischaracterizing the war only serves to underline Beijing's closeness to Moscow," CNN's Simone McCarthy wrote this week.
Perhaps. But talk is cheap. It costs China little to promote the Russian narrative, which has the benefit of having an anti-U.S. bent. But China wants to stay integrated in a world economy that has suddenly cut off Russia from its embrace. For the moment, the actual dollars-and-rubles-and-yuan price of coming to Moscow's aid in tangible ways — in defiance of most of the developed world — might be a bit more than Beijing wants to pay.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Joel Mathis is a freelance writer who lives in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife and son. He spent nine years as a syndicated columnist, co-writing the RedBlueAmerica column as the liberal half of a point-counterpoint duo. His honors include awards for best online commentary from the Online News Association and (twice) from the City and Regional Magazine Association.
-
'Accepting defeat is Rishi Sunak's only hope of victory'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week Staff Published
-
Royal family website attacked by Russian hackers
Speed Read Pro-Kremlin group claim responsibility just two weeks after King Charles condemns invasion of Ukraine
By The Week Staff Published
-
Larry the cat: how chief mouser 'won the nation's hearts'
Why Everyone's Talking About Downing Street says resident pet is 'healthy' despite reports of contingency plans for his death
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Why do Chinese politicians keep disappearing?
String of unexplained absences renews Beijing purge speculation
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
A brief timeline of Russia's war in Ukraine
In Depth How the Kremlin's plan for a quick conquest turned into a quagmire
By Peter Weber Published
-
Ukraine's counteroffensive is making incremental gains. Does it matter in the broader war?
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
How the collapse of the ruble could impact the war in Ukraine
Talking Point Will it hurt Putin's war or is it merely symbolic?
By Justin Klawans Published
-
British spy chief, Wagner video suggest Prigozhin is alive and freely 'floating around'
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Putin and Prigozhin offer rival explanations for Wagner's brief rebellion
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Who was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man who defied Putin and paid the ultimate price?
Why Everyone’s Talking About Prigozhin launched an attempted assault against Moscow at the end of June. By the end of August, he was dead.
By Justin Klawans Last updated
-
How will Wagner's short-lived mutiny affect the Ukraine invasion?
Today's Big Question Yevgeny Prigozhin's 24-hour rebellion against Moscow is over for now, but its aftershocks may just be starting
By Peter Weber Published