Russia and Ukraine

[Anomalocaris]

Did China move away during/after Crimea?

the original russian invasion of crimea did not involve the same formal recognition of the independence of a breakaway region.    There was no breakaway region, only ethnic russians agitating, until the Russians supported and organized the agitators.

For china the sensitivity is with a breakaway region given formal recognition of independence by an outside power.   China sees in Taiwan the moral equivalent of what russia is trying to do in the donbas.