Here is AFP's look at the imbalanced China-Russia relationship:

- China popular, Russia isolated -

Xi welcomes Putin in the afterglow of a string of diplomatic pilgrimages to Beijing in recent months, positioning China as a stable global partner in the face of a volatile United States.

Among the foreign leaders who have flocked to the Chinese capital are French President Emmanuel Macron in December and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in January.

South Korea's Lee Jae Myung and Vietnam's To Lam also visited this year, along with leaders from the Middle East affected by the Iran war.

Geopolitical rival US President Donald Trump wrapped up his trip to Beijing just days before the Russian leader landed.

It's a stark contrast to Moscow's diplomatic isolation by Western powers since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Putin also facing an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.

However, Putin could potentially rub shoulders with Western leaders this November, as he told Xi Wednesday he would take part in this year's APEC summit in southern China's Shenzhen.

Trump has said he may also attend.

Putin has not attended an APEC summit in-person since 2017, absent from editions in South Korea, the US and Thailand since the the Ukraine war.

- China's economic heft -

China, the world's second-largest economy, is by far Russia's largest trading partner, according to Russian media.

Russia, in turn, ranked fifth for China -- after the United States, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.

China has so far been relatively sheltered from the impacts of the Middle East war, although prices of fuel and raw materials have fluctuated greatly since US and Israeli strikes against Iran began on February 28.

China-Russia trade was up nearly 20 percent in the first fourth months of 2026, Xi said in remarks alongside Putin on Wednesday, hailing it as "no small feat" in a "complex external environment".

Western leaders have accused China of enabling Russia's war in Ukraine through economic ties.

Still, Russia's economy has suffered under sanctions and high war costs, and it reported its first quarterly contraction in three years this month.

China is also facing a growth slump due to sluggish domestic consumption.

Retail sales in April grew at their slowest pace since December 2022, when China was reeling from an outbreak of Covid-19 infections.

- Russia, seller of oil and gas -

Russia, under Western sanctions due to the Ukraine war, is heavily dependent on China to buy its oil.

Chinese imports of Russian oil rose 26 percent in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2025, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Putin has also been advocating for the building of a second major natural gas pipeline from Russia to China through Mongolia called the Power of Siberia 2.

The two leaders had "an understanding of the main parameters" during talks Wednesday, Russian media quoted the Kremlin as saying.

But analysts say Beijing is not keen to be too dependent on Moscow.

"China likes to be diversified," said Anne-Sophie Corbeau of the Center on Global Energy Policy.

"They have the upper hand in the negotiations, as they have alternatives: domestic gas production, including syngas from coal, pipeline gas from central Asia and LNG," she said.

"Russia on the other hand does not have that many market outlets: they lost Europe, they are still exporting to Turkey... but they are hoping to export more to China," Corbeau added.

- Tech gap -

China has invested heavily to fortify its position in chipmaking and AI to compete with the United States.

Russia, however, lags far behind, stymied by US and European sanctions that prevent it from acquiring components needed to make weapons.

Russia depends on China to supply it with those parts, with Bloomberg reporting last month that 90 percent of Moscow's sanctioned technology imports are coming through China.

Shipments of Chinese optical fibres critical for artificial intelligence and drone manufacturing increased 16-fold in 2025 compared to a year earlier, according to Russian media.

On Wednesday, Xi said that China and Russia should expand cooperation in artificial intelligence and technology while describing bilateral ties as at their "highest quality in history".

Putin, in turn, hailed the two countries' "commitment to an independent and sovereign foreign policy".