Most significantly, China’s influence has recently shifted from passive supply to active manipulation of the technological balance on the battlefield—the hallmark of a state engaged in proxy warfare. In May 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated bluntly, “Chinese Mavic [drones] are open for Russians but are closed for Ukrainians.”

DA WEI is Director of the Center for International Security and Strategy and a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University.

US President Donald Trump said he will hold off on raising tariffs on Chinese goods over the country’s purchases of Russian oil, citing progress he said was made with Vladimir Putin toward ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump has threatened sanctions on Moscow and secondary sanctions on countries that buy its oil if no moves are made to end the war in Ukraine. China and India are the top two buyers of Russian oil. The president last week imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing its continued imports of Russian oil.

From the dawn of Ukraine's first-person-view drone industry up to a year ago, producers purchased almost all of the parts they used in assembly from Chinese firms. Today, Ukrainian companies have started mass-producing the various electronics,

The U.S. should actively pursue what China wants: a weak Russia. That’s easy to achieve by helping Ukraine stop Putin, as the Trump administration may finally be doing.

Speaking after Friday’s summit, President Putin again implied that the war is all about Russia’s diminished status since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Germany’s foreign minister on Sunday criticised what he called the “aggressive behaviour” of China in the Taiwan Strait ahead of a trip to Japan and Indonesia, and stressed the need to strengthen internationally binding rules.