Leon Panetta: China ‘caught in a balancing act’ between ‘peacemaker’ and arms provider to Russia

Leon Panetta, the former Defense Secretary, former CIA Director, and former White House Chief of Staff joins Andrea Mitchell to react to the growing relationship between Presidents Xi and Putin, as Xi spends his second day in Moscow. “For China to remain the strongest partner, they’d have to have a strong economy. And so what I sense here is that China has to play this balancing role: saying that on one hand, they're a peacemaker, and trying to provide peace in the Ukraine. But at the same time, that makes clear that they really can't provide military arms to the Russians, because that would undermine their peacemaker role. And secondly, they're concerned that the world would impose sanctions on China which could hurt their economy. So while all of this is taking place, it's pretty clear that China is now caught in a balancing act."