Putin-Xi Meeting Threatens Chinese Curveball in Russia’s War

Xi may also recognize that his closest partner on the world stage needs some propping up, Jacob Stokes, a former national security aide to Biden and former acting special advisor to the vice president for Asia policy, told The Daily Beast. If Xi does follow through with providing lethal aid to Russia, it is likely a sign that Xi is interested in working to solidify a stalemate between Russia and Ukraine and making sure that Russia doesn’t suffer a total defeat, said Stokes, now a senior fellow for the Indo-Pacific Security Program at CNAS.

“What it says is that China wants to make sure that its most important partner in global affairs is not isolated despite the war in Ukraine,” Stokes told The Daily Beast.

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