Indeed, contrary to what Putin claims to the Russian public, the Chinese are not fully committed to backing him in his confrontation with the West. One sign of this is the hard bargain that President Xi Jinping struck in negotiating China’s recent huge gas contracts with Russia; another is that Chinese lending to Russia since the invasion of Crimea has actually declined.
事实与普京向俄公众宣扬的恰恰相反，中国并未全力支持他与西方的对抗。标志之一是习近平主席在最近中俄签署的巨额天然气合同谈判中的大幅杀价；另一个标志是俄国入侵克里米亚后中国的对俄借贷实际有所下降。