Europe is pressuring China to cut support for Russia

Europe is pressuring China again, and once again, nothing is changing. When EU officials meet Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, they’re making one thing their top priority: Beijing’s continued support for Russia’s wartime economy.

According to the Financial Times, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on July 8 that “China is de facto enabling Russia’s war economy. We cannot accept this… How China continues to interact with Putin’s war will be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward.”

The goal is to get China to back off from helping Moscow and force Russia to negotiate seriously with Ukraine. But after more than three years of this exact same strategy, Europe has no results to show — and no reason to believe anything will change now.

China’s not hiding where it stands. Foreign Minister Wang Yi told EU officials that Beijing does not want Russia to lose. And that’s obvious. China doesn’t want chaos next door. It doesn’t want a weakened, nuclear-armed neighbor with no stable leadership.

And it absolutely doesn’t want a Western-friendly Russia that could pivot away from Beijing. So when the West demands China cut ties without offering any solution that would preserve the Kremlin’s leadership, it’s a non-starter.

China sees no reason to give in when it gets nothing in return

Europe has made its position public. It wants Russia pushed back to its 1991 borders and top officials held accountable in war crimes trials. Those are the goals. But from China’s point of view, none of this sounds like the West is even trying to create a resolution that Moscow could accept. And Beijing isn’t interested in making demands of Putin that will go nowhere.

More importantly, China doesn’t believe it would gain anything by doing what Europe wants. Even if it leaned on Russia, Beijing sees no upside. Europe’s de-risking plan, its strategy to reduce reliance on China, is still moving ahead. U.S. export bans and tech restrictions haven’t eased either.

So there’s no incentive. Beijing’s support for Moscow keeps getting condemned, but the same people barely say a word about India massively boosting its imports of Russian oil, which is keeping Moscow afloat. China sees the double standards, and it’s made up its mind.

With Donald Trump now back in the White House, Putin still refusing to back down, and no economic softening coming from Europe, Beijing has even less reason to change its approach.

It’s not looking to isolate Russia; it’s looking to absorb it. China is already treating Moscow as a junior partner, building a long-term alliance on its own terms. Unlike the West, Beijing is also preparing for what happens after Putin by working with the Kremlin’s future power players now.

Europe keeps rolling out sanctions like they’re game-changers, but China doesn’t seem worried. The latest round included restrictions on two regional Russian banks. Beijing’s response? Turn those banks into dedicated tools for trade with Moscow.

There’s also the threat of retaliation. Beijing knows Europe and the U.S. rely on Chinese exports for critical minerals, and it’s ready to use that advantage. If tensions rise further, China could also hit back by cutting off supplies of drone parts to Ukraine, which are still heavily dependent on Chinese components. Right now, Ukrainian drone makers need those parts, and Beijing has the option to pull the plug.

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