Invasion of Ukraine places Chinese relationship with Russia under pressure

U.S. President Joe Biden refused to comment Thursday on whether he was urging China to join the international community in condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The two countries — after all — have recently emerged as fast friends.

Last month, they announced a "no limits" partnership, essentially a non-aggression pact denouncing external interference in their respective territorial areas of interest.

They also inked a 30-year gas pipeline deal — one that saw China extract huge concessions from Russia in exchange for cash President Vladimir Putin will need to weather Ukrainian-related sanctions.

University of B.C. political science professor Yves Tiberghien says China's approach to Russia is tactical. There's no love lost between the two nations — and he says internal polling shows a mutual distrust between their citizens.

He wonders if the mercenary nature of the relationship might mean there's at least some room for the West to exert influence on China.

"They're going to have this bottom-line mentality where they think why would we hurt the only tactical alliance we have when we will gain nothing," he said.

"So I wonder from a very rational perspective whether there's some space there to incentivize China to realize that 'You're still a stakeholder in this global economy, in the global system, and despite all the problems we have with you — Russia just broke everything, broke all the rules, so you don't want to be with them.'"

China has refused to condemn Russia's attack on Ukraine, instead blaming the United States and its allies for inflaming a tense situation.

Experts agree the Asian superpower occupies a pivotal role in the crisis, as both an ally to Russia and the world's leading exporter of consumer goods — deeply dependent on globalization to fuel its economy.

Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law Michael Byers says he saw firsthand the proof of China's importance to Russia while visiting western Siberia in 2015.

He says he noticed a vast increase in freight cars pouring across the border bound for China on the Trans-Siberian railway — pointing to Russia's restructuring of its economy to cope with the impact of sanctions imposed in 2014 in response to the annexation of Crimea.

"It was non-stop freight trains, just the volume of natural resources that were being shipped to China," Byers said.

"I'd been to Novosibirsk before 2014, so I actually saw a marked change."