I agree. The premise may be true but the reasons ring hollow. China can get oil from many sources. They may not be interested in banking or finance with Russia but that’s probably because they have 5-10-15 year down the road planning. If they are doing anything, it’s less to do with fear of near term economic repercussion and more because it suits their vision. A weak Russia is in their interests and they are probably sitting back smiling as the mess in Ukraine weakens and distracts Russia, Europe and the US.
“They may not be interested in banking or finance with Russia...”
And that’s been a real interesting, and in many ways frightening, development that China and Russia adjoined diplomatic relations about the time the Soviet hold imploded in Russia around 1991. And this was after centuries of mistrust, posturing, aggression, and an occational small armed conflict. Together they have learned how to use each other’s resourses to change the power balance in the world.
Of course, it won’t be with military intervention as many places in the world have the capacity to wipe out the planet. But they mesh well in trade which posts a threat to other nations as Russia is now doing with their oil and natural gas control. And China is rapidly losing it’s war with taking care of their people as they continue to grow faster than they can stay up with and are now expanding into other countries. Japan had the same problem in the early 1940’s only they decided to fix it by force. And the US was and is one of targets with both financial and agricultural concerns. They may have discovered you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar and you can get nutrients out of honey at the same time. Course that also gets back to how many ways of skinning the cat, too.
wy69