On Monday, US officials led by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met in Rome with a Chinese delegation led by his counterpart, Yang Jiechi. While a central topic of the seven hour-long discussion was Ukraine, the meeting covered a wide range of topics including North Korea, Taiwan, and on-going efforts to manage strategic risks confronting the two nations.

A source familiar with what transpired in the meeting told me that their sense was that “the Chinese at the highest levels have thrown in with Putin” and that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “trying to play it neutral in public but back Putin substantially in the background—economically, financially, and now perhaps militarily. I don’t think they want to play a mediation role.”…

Xi and other top Chinese officials have in the past indicated a desire for China to be acknowledged as a leader within the international community. But by throwing its lot in with Putin—already a global pariah who each day compounds past war crimes with new ones—the Chinese leadership not only risks the status it seeks, but is making three other grave errors.

That’s because as the war continues, Russia’s international standing will not only suffer, it will be weakened economically and militarily. As a result, China’s partnership with that country has to be seen as a wasting asset—less valuable to China with each passing day.