U.S.-Chinese cooperation is essential to solving climate change and other problems. Russian's invasion of Ukraine complicates matters.

A prominent interpretation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is that China has been supportive of the Russians and has not done enough to pressure Vladimir Putin to get back to the negotiation table. A natural conclusion follows: Had China openly pressured Russia, the conflict may have been avoided. Hence, the conflict is the result of China’s irresponsible stance, not the failure of the American foreign policy.

But is it true that China supports Russia in its conflict with Ukraine?

Supporters of that view would quickly point to Putin’s visit to Beijing during the Winter Olympics last February. In a meeting with President Xi Jinping, Putin offered to increase China’s natural gas supply.

The Chinese government’s cozy remarks on the China-Russia relationship further support the notion that China is on board with Russia’s Ukrainian ambitions. Just after the Xi-Putin meeting, and shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, Le Yucheng, then executive vice minister of foreign affairs, claimed there was “no limit” to China-Russia collaboration. China also refused to vote with the United States on the United Nations Security Council resolutions denouncing Russia after the conflict broke out, arguing that doing so would only worsen the situation.

China-Russia interactions have recently intensified. Li Zhanshu, the chairperson of the Chinese legislature and the No. 3 figure in the Chinese Communist Party, said that China “understood and supported Russia on issues that were of great concern to Russia.” Xi met Putin during the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, saying that “China would offer strong support on issues that concern both Russia and China,” though he did not publicly comment on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

All these actions seem to suggest that China sides with Russia.

However, this interpretation ignores the subtlety of China’s response. One of its fundamental concerns in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is affirming the principle of territorial integrity: that no nation has the right to alter the borders of another nation.

You can see evidence of China’s desire to uphold territorial integrity in its refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Likewise, China refused to follow Russia’s lead in recognizing the independence of two eastern Ukraine states that broke away from the nation in a move that many perceived as orchestrated by Russia to help facilitate this year’s full-scale invasion.

China’s policy toward Taiwan and Tibet lies behind its stance on the eastern Ukraine states. If China recognizes their independence, then it wouldn’t be able to argue that Taiwan and Tibet should not seek independence.

This all puts China in a complicated situation. While distancing itself from Russia on the breakaway states in Ukraine, it must also work with Russia to deal with the United States’ ongoing campaign to undermine China. As a result, even Putin had to recognize that China holds a “balanced stance” on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

One very public example of Russia allying itself with China occurred in the Winter Olympics, when the United States urged its allies to refrain from sending officials to the opening ceremony. Putin made a show of quickly accepting the invitation, signaling that Russia was willing to side with China in the U.S.-China competition.

More recently, Beijing urged President Joe Biden to persuade House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to cancel her visit to Taiwan. The fact that Pelosi went ahead with the trip strained the already complicated U.S.-China relationship. As a show of support, Putin sided with China, calling Pelosi’s visit a “planned provocation.”

The fact is, the Chinese government has taken a highly contradictory stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Beijing never officially supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the Chinese government was also reluctant to work with the United States to sanction Russia, mostly due to worsening U.S.-China relations over the past five years.

Cooperation between the United States and China is a necessary first step in solving some of the overwhelming problems facing both countries. For instance, it is unlikely that we can make any meaningful progress on addressing climate change or the trade imbalances between the United States and China without the two countries working together. The challenge is figuring out how the United States and China can strengthen their policy cooperation while heatedly criticizing each other.

Zhenhuan (Reed) Lei is an assistant professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: U.S.-Chinese cooperation essential to solving our mutual problems.