China and Russia came under increasing Western pressure in recent months for their domestic human rights abuses and attempts to forcibly revise the international order.
In early February, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, issued a joint declaration opposing the U.S.-led alliances of NATO and AUKUS, which respectively threaten Moscow and Beijing’s security interests.
However, as the Russia-Ukraine crisis deteriorated in late February, with Moscow on the precipice of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chinese officials at the Munich Security Conference and U.N. Security Council appealed for calm, diplomatic dialogue and even respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.