by Ted Galen Carpenter
There were potential pitfalls for Beijing even before the onset of the current, dangerous spat between Russia and the West regarding the situation in Ukraine. Relations between the U.S.-led NATO bloc and the Kremlin had been deteriorating for years, punctuated by the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008. Chinese policymakers understood the Putin government's rising anger about NATO's eastward expansion to the border of the Russian Federation—especially with the incorporation of the Baltic republics. Even more provocative was the brazen lobbying by Senator John McCain and other hawkish Russophobes in the United States to expand the alliance still farther by bringing such nations as Georgia and Ukraine into the fold.