With a smile and a practiced ‘zdravstvuyte’, Chinese President Xi Jinping looked genuinely happy to say hello to Vladimir Putin in Beijing last month. After all, the Russian president was the only major leader to travel to the opening of China’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. Their embrace was deepening.
Indeed, the Chinese-Russian friendship was to have “no limits,” the two declared in a joint statement on Feb. 4, as they pledged each other’s support no matter what.
At the time, Xi may have enjoyed watching Moscow rattle Washington and other capitals with its military buildup on Ukraine’s borders and Putin’s implicit threat to invade. Russia’s moves could
