This analysis is truly awful, not least of all in the simply laughable notion that, by abandoning Russia, China would dampen the anti-China shift in the USA and elsewhere. What does the author imagine is driving current USA-China dynamics? It is certainly not the "democracy vs. autocracy" framework that is fed to the western masses and is apparently reproduced in the author's argument. It is fundamentally about the threat that the rise of China poses to American hegemony, a threat that would exist irrespective of China's form of government and irrespective of its relations with other nations. There are meaningful nuances within this dynamic, and within these nuances lie the prospects for war and peace, prosperity and suffering, but the basic dynamic of increasing tension can only be resolved by winding the clock back on generations of Chinese progress.
What is the worst-case scenario for China in this crisis? It is a collapse of the current Russian regime and its replacement with a US puppet regime that will complete the encirclement of China. China's efforts must be directed to avoiding such an outcome, which in practice means mitigating against the collapse of the present regime. That does not mean unconditional support for Russia, it does not mean that China cannot play a "constructive" role in managing the present crisis, nor does it mean that China has an interest in Putin, specifically, surviving, but it certainly means that China should not "stab Russia in the back".
EDIT: It if were actually true that, by "stabbing Russia in the back", China could significantly defuse escalating tensions with the USA even if only temporarily (say, for the next 15 years) and roll back unwelcome developments such as the "Quad", restrictions on technology imports/exports/etc. then China's path would be clear: stab Russia in the back. But the notion is simply ludicrous. The world does not work that way. At best, the enemy of my enemy is tolerated until I can get around to stabbing them in the back as well.
