[nicce]

This is an oversimplification. China can't support Russia directly for couple of reasons (from Taiwan perspective). Even neutral is a kinda bad.

  * Russia is foreign country, invading other country. China respects sovereignty. Their claims for Taiwan are based on that - Taiwan is not independent according to their narrative. Huge military invasion into Taiwan is against this ideology. It proves that Taiwan was not part of China.

  * If they are OK with invasion of Ukraine, then other countries have arguments for invading China, and help Tibet, Inner Mongolia or Xinjiang to be independent nations. China really does not want that.

Also they remind us all the time, that what happens in the country, happens in the country (China). It is country's business and nobody else should take part for that.

[asoneth]

I'm not sure China is as motivated about the logical consistency of these positions as much as their strategic impact on China. In their defense, most countries only bother holding consistent positions when it is advantageous for them to do so.

As Mao Zedong put it, "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".

[nicce]

China is authoritarian nation, but they deeply care about public image. And Xi is not crazy.

They need to be logical to maintain the image.

[asoneth]

They certainly engage in public relations efforts to burnish their public image and I agree that Xi is not crazy and would not make that task any more difficult than necessary.

But it does not seem like logical consistency is the driving force of their foreign policy.