Russia benefits from disruption and chaos: it causes fuel prices to spike. China benefits from stability: it ensures people can and want to buy all the stuff th

Russia benefits from disruption and chaos: it causes fuel prices to spike. China benefits from stability: it ensures people can and want to buy all the stuff they manufacture. Russia asserts the right of strong nations to meddle in any nation that can't resist them. China asserts the right of every nation to territorial integrity and freedom from internal meddling by, e.g., democracy and human rights activists. (To be fair, Putin also hates these people, but clearly thinks Russia itself should be free to meddle in other nations' internal affairs.) They are drawn together by their opposition to the West and in particular the US, and by their contiguity, but they aren't otherwise natural allies.