Its not so much in defiance as much as embracing his new pet as you or I would comfort our dog. Russia will be totally dependent on China for everything at the end of this.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The two leaders put out a lengthy statement that denounced what they saw as American interference and bullying and laid out their alignment on China’s claim to self-ruled Taiwan and Russia’s “legitimate security interests” in Ukraine.

Neither the risk of alienating Europe, a key trading partner needed to help revive China’s struggling economy, nor the threat of U.S. sanctions targeting Chinese banks that aid Russia’s war effort appeared to deter Mr. Xi’s embrace of Mr. Putin.

And the more Washington pushes back — including on trade issues such as the latest tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles — the more Mr. Xi feels validated about his choices.

What is paramount to Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin is what they call the “democratization of international relations” — essentially the erosion of U.S. dominance and the empowering of nonaligned countries and rogue states to coalesce around their common grievances toward the West.

The war has provided an opportunity for Russia, China, North Korea and Iran to deepen military coordination and evade sanctions by facilitating trade outside the reach of the U.S.-led financial system.

If Russia wins, he will offer to help reconstruct Ukraine, as outlined in China’s 12-point peace proposal last year, a document widely dismissed in the West for being insincere and focused only on protecting Russian interests.

The original article contains 1,215 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!