Putin’s horribly bad and catastrophic decision to invade Ukraine has created severe strategic problems for Russia and its people for the foreseeable future. Comrade Xi can feign solidarity with Russia but China has always coveted Russia’s rich, underpopulated Asian-Pacific territories and Siberia. Russia’s disaster in Ukraine has demonstrated that Russia does not have the conventional capability to defend those places. For Xi those lands are a more tempting target with his inexperienced “one child” soldiers armed with untested locally produced equipment than attacking a well defended Taiwan across 90 miles of open ocean. Chinese intelligence will soon note Russian tactical nuclear weapons being deployed to the Far East.
RuZZia may one day seek NATO admission to protect against a Chinese invasion.
Negotiations will be long and difficult.