China also supports and helps maintain North Korea, and has ties with Iran.

China sanctioned and voted for UN resolutions to sanction Iran in the past. Then Trump baselessly abandoned the JCPOA. Even the US own DNI said it is the consensus of all 18 intelligence agencies that Iran was in compliance and not seeking nuclear weapons. China, correctly, called the renewed sanctions illegal and refused to follow them

If North Korea were to collapse for any reason it would create a massive refugee issue for China.

A welcome one, china is in a demographic crisis.

Why not South Korea? Even ethnic Koreans in China go to South Korea en mass.

some would, but keep in mind they've been told that south korea is a hostile state controlled by evil americans for generations

people fleeing north korea already often head towards china

Well, trying to isolate and bully a country into submission isn't normal.

China wants to happily trade with the rest of the world (absolute horror, truly).

And Trump wants to charge money to use the Strait?! Don't see the difference honestly.

Difference is Trump wanted 20% and Iran like 2%.

Energy is not the main reason. China would still stand with Russia without energy.

China could never support a pro-Western Ukraine in the first place. The same logic applies to Iran, North Korea, etc.

Although China cannot directly express support because of foreign trade, things like the Communist Youth League playing "Katyusha" on the day Russia launched the invasion, and the information direction on social media, have already made their position very clear.

  > Energy is not the main reason. China would still stand with Russia without energy.

Of course it will because Russia also has cheap raw materials not just exclusively oil and gas. At the same time China does not invest into Russian economy because they don't want competition.

Weak Russia is more beneficial for China to buy commodities for cheap and then sell Chinese products back.

  > China could never support a pro-Western Ukraine in the first place.

China is one of largest Ukraine trade partners before and during the war. Ukraine even lobbied for ability to buy Chinese drone parts using EU funds when EU unable to fulfill.

So nope - China dont care. They are trading with both Russia and Ukraine.

Having trade relations does not mean China supports a country. US has always been China’s largest trading partner, but China <-> US relations can hardly be called "friendly".

The CCP government has absolute control over domestic public opinion. The pro-Russia direction on Chinese social media is very clear, although as the war became unfavorable for Putin, voices supporting Ukraine have been allowed a little more in recent years.

What the US supports is what China opposes. From Iran to Venezuela, from Gaza to Ukraine, except for a very small amount of "human consensus", it is always and will be like this.

My point stands: if China was "against" Ukraine they wouldn't sell to Ukraine because a lot of drone manufacturing depends on Chinese components.

Of course China does not support Ukraine politically, but that's a different story.