We are directly affected this, too. It is extremely annoying and could split up families.
It may be unwise for both countries to quarrel now especially at a time when the US is doubling down in its efforts to destroy both China and Russia. If ever the US succeeds in destroying either Russia or China, then the US will be able to focus its attention on destroying whoever is left among the two.
Russian goal is to keep US and China in perpetual conflict. It's why they push out propaganda on both sides of the spectrum.
If China starts to become too powerful, the Russians will start to appease the West more.
Does Russia realistically still have the economic strength to play such position ?
It's only getting easier and cheaper to push propaganda, look at how influential FLG and Guo are.
I can only see the internet getting worse as time goes on unless they crackdown hard on internet anonymity.
Soon you won't even need people to troll, just a buncha bots and AI that can pass the Turing test.
CCP saw this shit coming 20 years back and did the censorship thing. No wonder they enforce all social media accounts to be linked to phone numbers/ID.
I think any country that grows powerful enough to challenge US hegemony will inevitably be in a state of perpetual conflict with them since the US will not let other countries reach a certain power level that would enable them to threaten US interests. If Russia is to magically disappear, the US would still want to dismember China for the simple reason that China is a threat to American hegemony.
Giving in to appease the West would mean surrendering Crimea, and eventually dividing up Russia into a dozen mini-states, just like how the West wishes to see Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong etc torn away from China. I don't think any sane Russian leadership would find these demands acceptable.
The West always had a soft spot for Russians (due to white nationalism) as show by their recent overtures to get Russia on their side. When's the last time the media even focused about Crimea? The focus is on China for now.
Death of Putin and his like minded friends will be very dangerous for China. There was a Pew poll showing that most Russian youth prefer a Russia-US relationship over Russia-China relationship.
Russia still has the ability to play a fulcrum, but is not a direct competitor. Having said that, Russia is in a vulnerable position vis-a-vis china because its most valuable portion is not densely populated, and is also possible to create separatist positions. I think the democrats have a personal hate against putin, which is similar to the personal hate the republicans have of china. In all respect, China is in a more stable position compared to Russia. A netural Russia is all china really needs, it doesn't need it to be a formal ally.
Russians hold valuable resources and land and airspace. It's why they had to defend so hard against US corporate interests.
As a minority, Katherine Tai will need to go above and beyond to prove her loyalty to America. Don’t expect her to be soft on China just because she’s ethnically Chinese.
Also, Chinese people are the worst at hating on other Chinese people. It’s the minority mentality.