China will be in said position over his own ambitions anyway, they definitively are the big winners of this war so far.
I agree they're the ones that are gaining the most out of a negative situation
China is literally doing
the can't do anything but support Russia, so they price that support as high as they can
But chess stalemate i was referring to, does'nt require the two parts involved to be on even conditions (one can be in way more advantageus position, often is how it goes), it just takes that the situation does'nt allow to move and the game is fucked.
Actually is a scenario that if intentional is encouraged by the fucked up side, not by the upper hand one
I agree with you that if China is locked there is only due his own ambitions
If was'nt for that #1/Superpower/Will-surpass-USA! dream, as external free player they would have many options... probably get best of both worlds, keeping the business they built with west and probably still scamming Russia (probably scamming it even more)
But as you say their ambition tie their hands, as they put themselves in a giant game that can't be played without a team, even if the most important member of their team do the fuck he want at any time regardless of your opinion or how his actions may disturb your plans
Does'nt help China play for long safe game, Russia play gamble for Putin's personal legacy
In my ignorance i believe China made a mistake thinking this game is about simple power of the teams, ignoring the composition:
When you watch "the west" beyond the hypocrisy for sure many differences and gimmicks come out (to say one, as italian i despise french and german political strategies), but if we get rid of the bitching there's one clear direction: USA is the big boss and other nations follow
Seems to me to match the west China thought ally with gigantic nations like Russia and India by straight grand total would give her a position of power able to face/surpass USA, but reality is China does'nt seem to have over them same influence USA have over western team
Russia will never play as #2 as long Putin is alive, India does'nt trust/like them and tbh is'nt even locked into same west nemesis role China/Russia put on themselves
I think Russia actions may have dropped a big turd on China quiet plans to slowly win the world, even more because Russia did'nt dominated the smaller nation, but in people's eyes is struggling in an embarassing way
I mean if Russia quickly took over Ukraine and west could'nt do shit about it, in China's eyes at least would have been a rise of value of their ally, they could have played good cop-bad cop and all that shit... but current outcome obtained opposite result
Actually they that ever worked hard to avoid any confrontation with the west (their flexing ever been about increasing wealth and giving no fucks about western morals while handling internal national stuff, not russian style threats), still they got stuck into have to put their face in this situation and if ever Russia will have to retire with tail between legs, small % of that embarassment will fall on them too because it became team shit
ps: not saying western situation is perfect either, just focused on China's side of the thing
