Conventional wisdom has it that Communist China has miscalculated by supporting President Putin’s war in Ukraine. The Russian strongman faces unexpectedly fierce resistance from the Ukrainian military and is being squeezed by the West.

Mr. Putin, moreover, has been left little short of a pariah on the global stage. Some at Brussels and in Washington expect that, with its close ties to Moscow, Beijing could endure a similar fate. Yet this is unlikely to happen.

It would, in the first instance, be folly to mistake the West’s banishment of the Kremlin as a global consensus. Many across Europe and America have been galvanized into displays of unity not seen in years.

Much of the world, though, remains on the sidelines or has tacitly aligned with Moscow. Saudi Arabia, say, is sticking by the Kremlin. It has repeatedly rebuffed calls to expel Russia from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.


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