Opinion: China wanted to appear neutral between Russia and Ukraine. It isn't

When Russia invaded Ukraine last month, a spate of wishful thinking ran through the West that China, a great power with friends on both sides, might step in to mediate a cease-fire.

China's government struck a pose of neutrality, called for a peaceful resolution and said it supported the principle of "territorial integrity." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a public plea to China's Xi Jinping to intervene.