The term “useful idiot” was first coined in the Cold War to describe unwitting supporters of the Soviet Union. Since then the phrase has morphed into other areas of everyday life, but is still largely rooted in the fields of politics and international confrontation. 

China is learning all sorts of useful stuff from the war in Ukraine about how far to push against established international norms; how to inoculate one’s country from a global backlash against bad behaviour and how to drive a wedge between one’s adversaries. 

All this has come at virtually no cost to Beijing as the Kremlin has copped most of the flak. So, as he casts a hungry eye at Taiwan, does Xi Jinping see Vladimir Putin as a very useful idiot indeed?

In this episode of Defence in Depth, Dominic Nicholls, The Telegraph’s associate editor, explains how, by invading Ukraine, Putin has shown his Chinese counterpart where the edges of Western tolerance for aggression lie.

Watch Dominic’s video analysis above. Find more episodes of Defence in Depth on The Telegraph’s YouTube channel.