China sanctioned and voted for UN resolutions to sanction Iran in the past. Then Trump baselessly abandoned the JCPOA. Even the US own DNI said it is the consensus of all 18 intelligence agencies that Iran was in compliance and not seeking nuclear weapons. China, correctly, called the renewed sanctions illegal and refused to follow them
Energy is not the main reason. China would still stand with Russia without energy.
China could never support a pro-Western Ukraine in the first place. The same logic applies to Iran, North Korea, etc.
Although China cannot directly express support because of foreign trade, things like the Communist Youth League playing "Katyusha" on the day Russia launched the invasion, and the information direction on social media, have already made their position very clear.
> Energy is not the main reason. China would still stand with Russia without energy.
Of course it will because Russia also has cheap raw materials not just exclusively oil and gas. At the same time China does not invest into Russian economy because they don't want competition.
Weak Russia is more beneficial for China to buy commodities for cheap and then sell Chinese products back.
> China could never support a pro-Western Ukraine in the first place.
China is one of largest Ukraine trade partners before and during the war. Ukraine even lobbied for ability to buy Chinese drone parts using EU funds when EU unable to fulfill.
So nope - China dont care. They are trading with both Russia and Ukraine.
Having trade relations does not mean China supports a country. US has always been China’s largest trading partner, but China <-> US relations can hardly be called "friendly".
The CCP government has absolute control over domestic public opinion. The pro-Russia direction on Chinese social media is very clear, although as the war became unfavorable for Putin, voices supporting Ukraine have been allowed a little more in recent years.
What the US supports is what China opposes. From Iran to Venezuela, from Gaza to Ukraine, except for a very small amount of "human consensus", it is always and will be like this.
First things first: the CCP must dominate China itself. For this job one is the global discrediting of democracy in favor of cults of personality. This is the single objective of the Putin-Xi-Khamenei information system. China global hegemony would merely be an instrument of CCP internal control. Similarly Khamenei supported Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi, Iraq militias ... to control his own population.
Also China's silent but powerful support of Russia and its invasion.