IMO the West's biggest problem in the longer term is that
the Ukraine War has drawn China closer to Russia culminating
in the early Feb 2022 joint statement of a China-Russia "relationship without limits"
China's trade with Russia in the interim has intensified ; so much
so that it has blunted the impact of Western Economic Sanctions
on Russia economically and forged new joint economic projects in
oil , gas , fertilisers & food.
"Russia currently ranks second in terms of oil, coal and pipeline gas supplies to China, and fourth in exports of liquified natural gas, Alexander Novak said.
“The Power of Siberia gas pipeline is fully operational; LNG exports from Russia increased by 32 percent in the first 10 months of this year(2022) over the same period last year. In February 2022, Gazprom and CNPC signed a contract for natural gas exports via the Far Easter route, which includes exports of another 10 billion cubic metres of gas per year to China. Efforts are underway to sign an intergovernmental agreement on the implementation of the Amur Gas Chemical Complex. Plans also call for delivering low-carbon ammonia and hydrogen to the Chinese market,” Alexander Novak added.
Energy exports to China are expected to grow 11 percent by the end of the year, over 2021."
(source : russia.ru)
This has essentially divided the globe in two: The Western Alliance &
the Russian-Sino Alliance with the remainder of the BRICS (particuluarly
India) sitting on the fence.
During the Cold War, the US enjoyed ongoing Russian-China conflict
which then prohibited both Communist countries from ganging up
against America.
This time its different, IMO.
We have a Communist China (some say State Capitalist) aligning
itself with a revamped Oligarch-State Capitalist Russia and, IMO,
it will be interesting how this "affair" will go .
Obviously the economic common denominator is State Capitalism.
Here is a useful link in relation to the economic importance to
China of trade with both Russia & the Ukraine.
https://www.diis.dk/en/research/the-economic-meaning-of-the-russia-ukraine-war-china
You can draw your own conclusions...eh?
