News Analysis When President Joe Biden came to Xi Jinping with American intelligence about an upcoming Russian invasion of Ukraine, begging Xi to do something about it, Xi must have thought Biden pretty naive. First, Xi almost certainly knew and approved Vladimir Putin’s horrific plan in advance. Putin needed a buyer of last resort for the sanctions he knew were coming, so he had to get guarantees from Xi first. Second, even if Xi didn’t know, he would have approved. The Russian invasion, including war crimes like attacks on civilian apartments and power stations in Kyiv, take the spotlight off Beijing’s own human rights abuse and territorial aggression. Third, Russia’s invasion is turning it into a pariah state. The sanctions that resulted are forcing it into China’s arms, just as with the coups in Burma (Myanmar) in 2021 and Thailand in 2014. China is playing the democracies, and their sanctions, …