My own read on it is that China doesn't really have a stake in Ukraine vs. Russia but they have always been really uneasy about what Russia is doing in Ukraine

My own read on it is that China doesn't really have a stake in Ukraine vs. Russia but they have always been really uneasy about what Russia is doing in Ukraine because of what someone else already pointed out: China hates breakaway states. Coercing parts of another country to break away really runs counter to what China has been pushing for. On the ground level, there has been more than a few posts on Chinese social media in support of Ukraine. It's easy to draw the parallels between Ukraine being cut up by a more powerful neighbor with China's own "century of humiliation". Those posts didn't stay up for long though.