The quick pace of U.S. diplomacy around ending the war in Ukraine and steps by Washington to normalize relations with Moscow have sparked fears in Kyiv and European capitals about being sidelined and saddled with a peace deal that favors Russia.

But the prospect of a rapprochement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump isnt only bringing anxiety to European governments. The quick pivot away from decades of U.S. foreign policy toward Russia is also fueling unease in China.

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The Chinese have seen this coming since Trump was elected and signaled that he wanted to quickly end the war in Ukraine, Dennis Wilder, who was a top White House China adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush, told RFE/RL. While a complete rapprochement might not be in the cards, theyre nervous because if Trump lifts sanctions on Russia, then Moscows dependency on China decreases.

One of the hallmarks of Chinese leader Xi Jinpings foreign policy has been a burgeoning strategic partnership with Putin thats grown closer since Moscows full-scale invasion in February 2022. Beijing has propped up the Russian economy through enhanced trade and energy purchases while fueling the Kremlins war effort with the supply of key goods as both Xi and Putin have found common ground in wanting to challenge the West and unseat the United States.

And fear of all that being derailed by a new type of U.S.-Russia relationship born out of a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine -- as was raised this week during talks in Saudi Arabia -- is real for Beijing.

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Wilder says that hes had conversations with very senior Chinese officials since Trumps election in November who have expressed concern about a potential U.S.-Russia reset.

He says theyve used the phrase only Trump goes to Moscow, a play on the historical reference to former U.S. President Richard Nixons landmark visit to Beijing in 1972, when he defied precedent and courted China to exploit its split with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Efforts to drive a wedge between Beijing and Moscow by warming up to Russia have been termed by some analysts as a reverse Nixon.

In the same way as Nixon with China policy, they see Trump as someone who is uniquely placed to run against the current nature of U.S. policy towards Russia and could even travel to Moscow, Wilder said. This doesnt mean the Chinese think that the Russians will break relations, but their strong alignment today could diminish.

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It remains to be seen what the Trump administrations outreach will bear fruit, but following a phone call this month with Putin, recent U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh, anda deepening riftwith Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over peace talks, the White House is charting a new course on ties with Moscow and the war in Ukraine.

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We seem to be witnessing not a reset but a wholesale realignment of U.S.-Russian relations, Lucian Kim, senior Ukraine analyst at the International Crisis Group, told RFE/RL. In that sense, the war in Ukraine is not a call to resist Russian aggression but a roadblock to closer cooperation between Washington and Moscow.

For Beijing, this development comes with plenty of worrisome hypotheticals, including allowing Washington to build up its military footprint in the Pacific and leaving China more geopolitically exposed in the event of a crisis with Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own.

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I think China would prefer to see a weak Russia and even continuing the Ukraine war would better serve Beijing as that would have the United States focus scattered away from the Indo-Pacific, Sari Arho Havren, an associate fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute, told RFE/RL.

The Trump administration has made clear it sees managing a long-term rivalry with China as its top foreign policy objective and may look to deprioritize regions like Europe and the Middle East in order to raise pressure on Beijing in Asia.

Senior U.S. officials have also telegraphed in recent comments that cracking the China-Russia partnership could be part of the motivation in normalizing ties with Moscow.

Following the talks in Riyadh, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the possibility for future geopolitical and economic cooperation between Washington and Moscow was among the key points discussed.

A few days earlier at the Munich Security Conference, Keith Kellogg, Trumps special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, said that the United States aimed to force Putin into actions he was uncomfortable with, including disrupting Moscows ties with China, Iran, and North Korea.

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In a February 14interview with The Wall Street Journal, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that Washington was prepared to reset the relationship with the Kremlin following an agreement over Ukraine as a move to end Russias isolation and its growing dependence on China since the war began.

Its not in Putins interest to be the little brother in a coalition with China, Vance said.

Trying to diminish the two countries partnership has also been on the radar of Trump administration officials for some time.

Robert OBrien, who served as national security adviser under Trump from 2019 to 2021, said in an interview last year that the White House had discussed the strategy during his tenure and that reaching a settlement for the war in Ukraine is a vital first step in kickstarting that process.

Until we get the Ukrainian situation solved, were not going to have a chance to make a run at Russia, hetold the Wire Chinain June.

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Arho Havren says that the likelihood of the United States engineering a formal split between Beijing and Moscow are small -- especially while Putin remains in office, given the relationship that hes forged with Xi.

But even new cracks between the two powers may loosen Moscows alignment with Beijing and could have a deterrent effect on China, especially if it decides to use military force to take Taiwan, something that U.S. policymakers warn is a growing possibility.