I would just add that the question of China's support for Russia is most important in terms of the war in Ukraine. What you're seeing diplomatically is China mostly supporting Russia in what it is not doing. It's been described as freeriding on Russian vetoes of UN Security Council resolutions on Ukraine. The Chinese know the Russians are going to veto anything that calls for a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine or criticizes Russia's invasion of Ukraine, so they abstain. It's sort of passive diplomatic support.
Informationally, China's information operations are very closely echoing Russia's justification for the war in terms of NATO enlargement, indivisibility of security and all of these things. Militarily and economically, I would describe China's response as self-interest more than direct support of Russia. We know that Russia has asked for direct military support. We believe that China has not provided it. That's the conclusion of all the western intelligence services.
The Chinese are exercising more with the Russian military—ground, sea, and air—and they're doing that because Russia is the only country on the planet right now that is fighting a western-trained and equipped adversary. The Chinese are trying to learn from that, because they think they may have to do something similar in the future. It does provide a little bit of legitimacy to the Russian military exercising with China, but China is also benefiting and learning from that.
Economically, yes, China is providing dual-use items and items that allow the Russian economy to sustain itself in the face of sanctions. Frankly, so are many other countries on the planet, including many EU and North American countries. They're just doing it through intermediaries, like Kyrgyzstan, and until recently, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia.
Exports from several EU countries to Kyrgyzstan, for instance, have gone up 2,000%-4,000% over the last year. We all know where that's going, right? It's going through Kyrgyzstan into Russia. China is just doing the same thing, but directly.
I will end by saying that the Chinese-Russian economic relationship is more and more approaching a colonial relationship whereby Russia exports raw materials to China, such as oil and gas, at a discount. The Chinese are buying Russian oil and gas at a deep discount. Russia is then importing finished goods from China, so more and more, Russia is in a subordinate economic position.