Quote (Goomshill @ Oct 4 2022 09:59am)
Peace and geopolitical stability- at least to the point of preventing full blown world war- serves their purposes, they don't care about Ukraine beyond their shared opposition to US-backed color revolutions as a destabilizing force, they said as much at their recent summit.
When the US and Russia are at each other's throat, China benefits. But if it escalates to nuclear war, China faces an existential threat and would rush to try to resolve the conflict. But if Russia goes nuclear, China isn't going to go out of their way to provoke them and make the risks even higher. Its the opposite.
In the event of a nuclear strike the ONLY way to possibly restore stability is going to be total isolation of Russia. Negotiating anything with them sends the signal to Russia that they can invade and nuke the country and they will be negotiated with and allowed to keep what they took.
Additionally, the patriotic fervor that would erupt in the USA would basically mandate massive cuts to our trade with China if they aren't abiding by all of our sanctions. We (the combined EU, USA, Canada, Mexico, etc.) hold a LOT more leverage over China in trade than they hold over us.