People attend a candlelight vigil to remember delegates who lost their lives onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 enroute to the AIDS Conference 2014, at Federation Square in Melbourne on July 22, 2014. (Xinhua photo)

But how does this involve China? One reason is that it threatens the balance of global order represented by the UN Security Council. In this forum Russia relies on China for at least tacit backing. While trying to restrain perceived Western "adventurism" this is reasonable enough; but it surely cannot be in China's long-term interest to provide support for evasion of the responsibilities proper to a great power. The only result of this will be to diminish the image of the UNSC as the premier decision-making group on global security issues, and to move back so the era of power alone determining the outcomes of international disputes. It would, of course, also diminish the role of China in the non-Asian world.

The days are past when China was in a position to say that things happening a long way away are no concern of hers. With China's growing economic reach, the stability of other parts of the world, not to mention the safety of civilian air routes, are of considerable and increasing importance. There was one Chinese citizen aboard MH17: next time it could be a great deal worse.

No-one would want to see the isolation of Russia, which would only make it a more dangerous and unpredictable neighbor, nor a disruption of the generally excellent and mutually productive relationship between Russia and China, which is one of the lynchpins of Asian and global security. But China could have a useful role to play in exercising a restraining influence on Russia within the context of their friendship, encouraging her to accept her responsibility to ensure a properly objective investigation of this appalling incident, to take appropriate action to ensure justice is done and repetitions are prevented, and to pursue her legitimate interests in safeguarding national security without destabilizing neighboring countries.