73 years ago, when Chinese leader Mao Zedong visited Moscow for a business, Stalin put him in a humiliated position, made him wait for weeks and finally gave him a business deal which was far from the one that would be favorably for Beijing
73 years later, following the sanctions and impeding oil embargo from the West changed the balance of powers. Today China with $18-trillion economy is in much better position to dictate the rules for a game. Putin had travelled to Beijing shortly before he began the offensive in western front against Ukraine to declare the friendship with China
However, Xi does not want to attract sanctions on China. Xi and Putin share hostility against the West and NATO, but China’s only interest would be the Chinese prosperity, not saving Russia. China being Russia’s one of the main oil importers may increase further the amount as it did substantially during the last and current year as long as China benefits good discount from Russia (the same applies to the gas)
Surely Russia will offer China much attractive price/discount, but the questions of “will China go further to expand its dependency on Russia? or will they think twice about it?” remain unanswered