The other confounding factor to a harmonious discussion is that Western media (taken loosely) has burned a lot of credibility with regards to China. Nearly everything China does is couched in "but at what cost?" terms.

This, quite naturally, leads to the belief that criticism of Russia is overblown, and is rather the West attempting to smear another country that doesn't play by the Western rules. "Don't tell a neighbor how to raise their kids", so it goes.

Also the parallels between Ukraine and Korea are drawn: some Chinese people can see that Russia doesn't want NATO moving up to the border because they didn't want the US doing the same in Korea.

Moreover, Western agitation to provoke the situation is blamed and Ukraine has been tricked by NATO into an alignment that unacceptably threatens Russia but without the commitment to actually defend it. Which, again, doesn't spring from nowhere.