When Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, called on Saturday for talks to resolve the crisis in Europe, he said that Ukraine's sovereignty should be respected and safeguarded.
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It was the latest instance of China taking a bold new swing at the United States and its allies by wading into European security issues to explicitly back Russia, which has amassed more than 150,000 troops around Ukraine for a possible invasion.
Current and former US and European officials are alarmed over a nonaggression pact between China and Russia that could lead to a realignment of the world order. Biden administration officials say the United States will work to create and bolster its own coalitions of democratic nations, including new Europe and Asia-Pacific strategic groups, and help countries develop advanced military capabilities.
John F. Kirby said last week that the U.S. government was watching the relationship between China and Russia. He said that a joint statement issued by the two countries showed that China was behind Mr. Putin.
Mr. Kirby said that the tacit support for Russia is more destabilizing to the security situation in Europe.
Russia and China have negotiated a 30-year contract for Russia to supply gas to China. Washington wanted the UN to impose additional sanctions on North Korea for new missile tests, even though the two nations had already agreed to similar sanctions. Russia moved large numbers of troops from Siberia to the west in a sign that it trusts China along their shared border in the east.
The 5,000-word joint statement that they made was seen as a turning point in China-Russia relations and a challenge to American and European power. The statement was the first in which China explicitly joined Russia in opposing any further expansion of NATO, and the two countries denounced Washington's new security partnership with Britain and Australia. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.
China and Russia said they would work with other countries to build a new world order in which autocracies are not respected.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on Saturday that they want a new era to replace the existing international order.
The triangle of power that defined the Cold War could be re-shaped by the strengthening of China-Russia ties and by President Richard M. Nixon's visit to Beijing 50 years ago. The United States and China counterbalanced the Soviet Union. Ties between Beijing and Moscow had fallen apart over issues of ideology and foreign policy.
The opposite is happening now.
Susan Shirk is the chair of the 21st Century China Center.
Ms. Shirk said that President Biden should try to get Mr. Xi to act on the Russia-created Ukraine crisis.
Russia needs more from China and they are in a marriage of convenience. The economic uncertainty that a European war would bring is something that Mr. Xi does not want. Mr. Wang made clear on Saturday that China always respects every nation's sovereignty.
There are limits to what China can do to help Mr. Putin. The major Chinese state-owned banks would probably refrain from violating the sanctions because of the fear of being shut out of the global financial system.
They have met 38 times as national leaders. They share the same desire to restore their nations to their former glory that they see as having been stripped from their homelands by Western European powers. Mr. Putin wants to bring back the pre-collapse era, while Mr. Xi wants to prevent China from following in the footsteps of the Soviet empire. Washington is accused of orchestrating mass protests and democracy movements around the world to overthrow other governments.
The conflict with China and Russia would have a different shape than the Cold War. Russia is an important energy exporter to Europe and China is an important trade partner of the United States. The three governments would not be able to block commercial exchanges with each other or form separate economic blocs with partner countries like in the days of the Iron Curtain.
Democratic and Republican foreign policy practitioners have expressed concern in recent days.
The national security adviser to the president argued in a Wall Street Journal opinion column that the partnership with Russia and China was a threat.
Scott Morrison, the current prime minister of Australia, denounced China last week for remaining silent on Russia's military build up around Ukraine.
A senior U.S. official said that the Biden administration would counter the two powers by trying to create greater connections among democratic partners and allies of the United States. During the 2020 campaign, Mr. Biden said that Russia was the greatest foreign policy challenge for the United States in the medium term, and that China was the biggest in the long term.
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The dominance of the Pacific. The U.S. has sought to widen its alliances in the region as China has built up its military presence. Taiwan is a democratic island that the Communist Party regards as Chinese territory. It could change the regional order if the U.S. intervenes there.
It is possible to trade. The trade war is on hold. The Biden administration has continued to protest China's economic policies and has imposed tariffs on Chinese goods.
Technology. Despite being shut out of China, many U.S. tech companies still do business there. China needs to achieve technological self-reliance according to Mr. Xi.
The secretary general of NATO has said that Mr. Biden pushed NATO to issue a summit statement last June that laid out the challenges that China poses to the alliance. The president held a virtual Summit for Democracy in December in which he spoke by video with officials from more than 100 countries. The White House released a strategy paper that said the United States would promote democratic institutions among partner nations and help them deploy advanced war-fighting capabilities, such as helping Australia build nuclear-powered submarines.
The initiatives have been denounced by both Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi. They have seen the promotion of democracy abroad and the deployment of troops and military equipment as huge threats to their nations.
It is hoped that the U.S. side will take off their tinted glasses, discard the Cold War mind-set, view China-Russia relations and cooperation objectively, recognize the prevailing trend of the times and do more things that are beneficial to world peace and development.
Alexander Gabuev, chair of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that the joint statement from China and Russia was a notable public milestone, but that the most important cooperation was occurring beneath the surface. He said that weapons sales from Russia to the Chinese military should be of concern to American policymakers.
Mr. Gabuev said that because the two nations settled territorial disputes along their 2,700-mile border in 2008, Moscow felt confident enough to move troops from its east to near Ukraine to prepare for a potential invasion.
Both nations compete and disagree on major issues. Russia sees the former Soviet republics of Central Asia as part of its sphere of influence. China says it is now a power in the northern part of the world. The country has important trade relations with many countries in the former Eastern European bloc.
China is Ukraine's largest trade partner, and Beijing has acknowledged the nation's sovereignty for decades. Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula has never been recognized by it. The joint statement made no mention of Ukraine.
Daniel Russel said that when he was in the government, they would take a hard look at China's calculations and find things that were not compatible with what Putin was trying to do.
Eric was reporting.
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