Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat that Beijing can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China,

Beijing confesses that it fears Washington will forget about Putin and go all out against the Asian giant. The balance between neutrality in the war in Ukraine and the partnership with Putin had been the prevailing script embraced by Chinese diplomats.

Wang is said to have rejected the accusation that China was materially supporting Russia’s war effort, financially or militarily, insisting that if it was doing so, the conflict would have ended long ago.