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Russia could shutdown exports to China during say a Taiwan conflict. That seems like a big deal. So any china war machine would have no way of supplying itself with Russia not exporting and the US controlling the seas. That’s a big deal.
Obviously part of an alliance would be Russia no longer interfering with US foreign policy. That’s what allies do.
You're still not addressing what flanking is supposed to provide.
Why would it seem like a big deal to anyone familiar with global trade?
If the commodities are fungible on the global supply level, a commodity cutoff would have no effect, because China would just buy from someone else. Since the Chinese economic system is centered on the south and eastern coasts, not overland, they already are dependent on maritime exports, which are the easiest to change suppliers of on the global market due to how cheap ocean travel is. The most significant Russian commodities of note, even in the Russia-China are allied scenario, are overwhelmingly fungible items that it doesn't matter who buys or sells them specifically.
If the commodities are NOT fungible, then China has less ability to adapt suppliers... but so do the Russians, who of course are taking it to the chin, because they can't just re-sell it as well. This does apply to some things, like the Russia-China natural gas pipeline, but this is notably a pipeline that was only built by Putin at a significant export loss for geopolitical purposes of an alliance, and even then it's not actually a critical cutoff to the Chinese economy. There are no current non-fungible commodities the Russian market provides China that are critical requirements for the Chinese economy.
Either way, you're either not having an effect, or not having a critical effect, due to the nature of the global market.
And this is if a cut-off occurs at all during a Taiwan conflict, vis-a-vis pressing the US to accept a fait accompli and getting back to trade as normal, or not actually cutting off at all and daring the Americans to do anything about it, which would be quite possible in the name of Strategic Autonomy like the Germans and French have already been pursuing.
Why would anyone familiar with the Chinese war machine or American pacific strategy think it's a big deal?
A Taiwan conflict isn't going to be based on long-term economic production, but on immediate available resources and stockpiles measured in many cases in months to years. The Chinese strategy would remain a fait accompli, not a global war of attrition.
Nor are the Americans going to launch a blockade of China in a sudden conflict. Not only will they not have the buildup to marshal support in the leadup given the likely nature of a Chinese attempt as a sudden action, but enforcing it would require a willingness for interceptions- actual casus belli interceptions of ships in international waters- with numerous neutral and even allied countries.
And that's assuming Russia doesn't maintain economic ties with China during a conflict in the same way that the Germans and Italians are maintaining economic ties to Russia in the current Ukraine war.
Why would anyone familiar with contemporary or historic international relations think that?
Wait what? America controls all shipping lanes. There’s no oil getting in. You get russia into the alliance then there’s no Russian energy getting in either.
I agree oil is fungible. But then we could have every foreign producer on our team to ban exports to China. It’s fungible when your not effectively blockaded in every direction. Like real things are still real in this world. And the ones not on our team would have to ship tankers in but we own the seas.
So we sink a few oil ships far from Chinese shores or just confiscate them. That’s not a hard thing to do.
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