But if you look a little closer at China’s readout from the summit, it becomes apparent that Putin left Beijing without having accomplished much at all. Sure, Russia and China announced a 30-year energy deal to deliver natural gas from Russia’s Far East to northeastern China, but it will be years before a proposed new pipeline becomes fully operational. Regarding Ukraine, a joint statement included a brief mention of support for Putin’s demands for new security guarantees from NATO.

But the summit also showed that Xi remains constrained by forces outside of his control. While offering his fellow autocrat some support, Xi does not want to risk damaging China’s already strained relations with Europe, particularly given growing concerns about China’s rapid economic slowdown. China’s exports to the European Union and Britain combined are almost 10 times those to Russia. With growing restrictions on technology transfers and Chinese investments as well as loud calls to reduce supply chain dependency on China, the last thing Xi wants is for China’s economy to face possible post-invasion sanctions should his support for Putin be too overt.

And therein lies an opportunity for the United States and its European partners to exploit the Sino-Russian relationship’s frictions—for example, by threatening to target China’s economic interests in Europe unless Beijing immediately dials back its support for Russia’s belligerence.