China is playing its own “(geo)strategic game” in the Washington-Moscow conflict, a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, CNN points out in its analysis.

He sent top diplomat Wang Yi – with his ears “ringing” from US warnings that China should not send weapons to Russia for use in the Ukrainian war – to the Kremlin for high-level talks, while the standoff over the Chinese spy balloon.

In the latest major move in a week of diplomatic symbolism, Putin warmly welcomed Wang, telling him that relations between Beijing and Moscow were “reaching new milestones.”

Wang told Putin that the two nations often face “crisis and chaos, but there are always opportunities in a crisis, which could potentially turn into an opportunity.”

This week’s developments do not mean that the future national security threats to the US from Beijing and Moscow are the same. The war in Ukraine has often exposed Russian weakness, while concerns about China’s rising power will preoccupy Washington for much of this century. Both of the US’s enemies have no formal alliance against the US, even if both see ways they can further their own ambitions to harm US interests and power by working together.

But this moment finds the United States facing worsening foreign policy crises, all at the same time – with its former Cold War adversaries the Kremlin, and rising power China led by Xi Jinping. Both of these adversaries openly question the international rule of law and reject rules that have underpinned the international system for decades.

The idea of ​​a global conflict between democracies and totalitarian regimes seemed theoretical when Biden floated it while running for president. Now it’s very real.

As it confronts Russia in Ukraine, the US is seeking to defuse its latest crisis with China – over what Washington says was a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US earlier this month. The two crises were “connected” this week as the US warned China not to supply Russia with weapons it could use in the war in Ukraine while Wang headed for Moscow.

Russia and China agreed to a “borderless” friendship before the Russian invasion last year, playing on US fears of a united front between Moscow and Beijing. China’s foreign ministry said Washington, which has sent high-tech weapons to Ukraine, was “unable to preach to China on the issue”.

Any attempt by China to supply weapons for the Ukraine war would not change the strategic balance of the battlefield – but it would be a serious and hostile new front for the US-China rivalry.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned on CNN that such a step would cross a U.S. red line, but did not specify what consequences it might have.

There is no evidence yet that China, while offering rhetorical support to Russia on Ukraine, has supplied it with lethal weapons for the conflict. And the idea of ​​a formal alliance against Washington by Russia and China still seems unlikely – given the power imbalance between Beijing and Moscow in favor of China.

China, which has its own economic problems, may be reluctant to risk US sanctions that could result from sending arms to Moscow. But Beijing may also have an interest in prolonging the war, believing it could divert US attention and military resources from Biden’s intensifying efforts to counter China’s dominance in Asia.

A long-term conflict could also lead to divisions between the US and Europe – further contributing to China’s foreign policy goals. And it could further fuel political discord in Washington, undermining Biden’s ability to deliver on his foreign policy goals on the world stage.

So there are many reasons why China – which has long viewed the war in Ukraine through the lens of its rivalry with the US – might not be in a hurry to see the war in Ukraine end.

This is yet another damaging foreign policy problem for Biden to deal with.