Beijing [China], May 10 (ANI): Russia-Ukraine conflict has come as a surprise for China's leadership which is assessing the costs and consequences of any future use of force to gain control over Taiwan.

According to Policy Research Group, China's independent refiners are discreetly buying Russian oil at highly discounted prices during the ongoing Ukraine war to avoid coming under the ambit of US sanctions.

Additionally in March, Russia bought 9,950 metric tons of alumina from China, which is almost 10 times more than what Russia purchased in the same period a year earlier, POREG further reported, citing Chinese customs data.

Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities are also conducting a large-scale check of the stability of the Chinese economy amid concerns about sanctions over cooperation with Russia. Chinese companies are quietly assessing the risk of "secondary sanctions" if they keep supplying Russia with products that may involve US technologies.

According to a CNN report, China is extending an olive branch to the US in a bid to prevent Chinese firms from being kicked off the US stock market as a fallout of the sanctions.

CIA Director William Burns said, "The bitter experience of the first 10-11 weeks of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has come as a surprise for China and their leadership is assessing the costs and consequences of any future use of force to gain control over Taiwan."Continuing further, he said that Chinese President Xi Jinping is "unsettled" because of the "economic uncertainty" and "reputational damage" due to China's association with the "brutishness of Russia's aggression" against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu expressed hope that the international community would support the Taiwanese government in case of a Chinese invasion, and would place sanctions on China in the same way the sanctions were imposed against Russia.

However, on a contradictory note countries which have traditionally taken a non-aligned approach to foreign policy have stayed away from the US campaign to isolate Russia economically as most countries in South America, Africa and Asia are standing on the sidelines, media reports said.

With the Ukraine conflict unfolding, the Chinese apparently have a first-hand assessment of the Western world's stomach for a fight, which doesn't entail boots on the ground, many in China have had the apparent motive of annexing the territory of a non-nuclear and smaller country. (ANI)