Communist China is projecting a self-image of strict neutrality in the war for Ukraine while offering moral and commercial support that is vastly enhancing Russia’s ability to press the fight despite heavy losses.

That’s the impression gained from highly contrasting remarks by China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, who denies China is arming either side in Ukraine but vows “China is ready to work with Russia to maintain bilateral relations at a high level.”

The Chinese news agency, Xinhua, said Mr. Qin had offered that assurance to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, when they met at the unlikely setting of Samarkand, an ancient trading center in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet satellite in Central Asia.

The next day, after meeting the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, at Beijing, Mr. Qin said flatly: “China will not provide weapons to relevant parties of conflict.” Nor, he said, will China export “dual-use items” — products that could be used for military as well as commercial or individual purposes. 

Mr. Qin, at Samarkand, repeatedly referred to the summit between the presidents of China and Russia at Moscow last month as setting the course for their close relationship. 

During their meeting, Messrs. Xi and Putin “provided strategic guidance and fundamental compliance for deepening China-Russian relations in the new era,” Mr.  Qin said. “China is willing to work with Russia to take as a core task the implementation of the consensus of the two heads of state.” 

Those words are more than mere rhetorical flourishes. The commercial relationship between the two has tightened and grown in inverse proportion to the sharp drop in commerce between Russia and the NATO nations.

Trade between China and Russia climbed to nearly $200 billion last year, with Russia buying $76 billion in imports from China while selling $114 in exports, mainly liquid petroleum gas and natural gas. Natural gas flows through a pipeline to China from the Russian far east called the “Power of Siberia,” and a second pipeline, the “Power of Siberia 2,” is under construction. 

China’s exports to Russia, though non-military, are essential to supporting the Russian economy, including the arms industry. At the top are machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers, electrical and electronic equipment, and vehicles. 

Building on these close ties, Mr. Qin called for the two sides to promote a plan for China-Russia economic cooperation signed by the two presidents at Moscow, and “guide the high-quality development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.” 

In the face of Mr. Qin’s protestations of neutrality in the war, Ms. Baerbock had to ask why China, as a member of the UN Security Council, did not “call for the aggressor, Russia, to stop the war.” Mr. Putin, she noted, could do so “at any time.” 

Nor was the commercial relationship between China and Russia the only way the Chinese could support the Russians in Ukraine. China keeps North Korea on life support by providing all its oil, much of its food, and other essential items while North Korea in turn is exporting arms to Russia. 

The American spokesman for the National Security Council has expressed concern that North Korea is increasing support for Russian operations in Ukraine. Under a deal proposed by Russia, he said, “Russia would receive over two dozen kinds of weapons and munitions from [North] Korea.” Russia in turn would ship food that’s badly needed by North Korea’s hungry people.

At the center of Russia’s negotiations with North Korea is a Slovakian arms dealer, Ashot Mkrtychev, whom the American treasury department has sanctioned “for having attempted to, directly or indirectly, import, export, or re-export to, into, or from” North Korea “any arms or related materiel.”

The American treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said such schemes “show that Putin is turning to suppliers of last resort” like Iran and North Korea.

Both Russia and China, though, are asking why Washington is placing constraints on arms deals with Russia while sending military equipment to the Republic of China on Taiwan, which China has often vowed to recover.

 “Why does the U.S. rant about respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity when it comes to Ukraine,” asked the Russian news agency Tass, “but forget to respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity when it comes to Taiwan and China?”