Less than three weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met at the Beijing Winter Olympics and declared their friendship has “no limits,” China was caught off-guard by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Beijing has responded with heavy censorship of news from Ukraine, pro-Putin propaganda in state media, and disinformation by its diplomats. As Beijing struggles to maintain Moscow's collapsing Ukraine narrative, analysts wonder if the swiftness and severity of global financial sanctions imposed on Putin will affect Chinese thinking on Taiwan, which China claims as its territory and has threatened to take by force.
