Just a strange thought...

[Jolly]

China and Russia have had more than one border spat over the years.

From the Chinese perspective...

Anything on their common border worth taking?

[Renauda]

Personally I think China would very much like most of the Russian far east. A resource rich target on which Beijing already holds the mortgage.

[Mik]

In the Tom Clancy book The Bear and the Dragon they referred to it as “the Northern Resource Zone”.

[Jolly]

If a Chinese dragon suddenly developed the nibbles, what would Putin do?

His conventional combat power is mostly tied up elsewhere...That is, what he has left.

[Renauda]

He would issue empty threats on Moscow prime time TV followed by a Soviet era movie on the 1939 Battle of Khalkin Gol against the Imperial Japanese Army.

https://thediplomat.com/2012/08/the-forgotten-soviet-japanese-war-of-1939/#:~:text=In the summer of 1939,and 1%2C000 tanks and aircraft.