Russians have the advantage of having had a powerful media establishment during the USSR times that was used to wage ideological war and win hearts and minds throughout the developing world.
China has none of that. They had some of it during the Mao era but basically just abandoned it after Deng and focused solely on economic development, thinking that if they were cooperative with the West, they could just quietly grow. And this did work for about 30 years but now China's too big for its britches and is target No. 1 and they are clueless as far as how to react to this.
Russians are also far more socially competent than Chinese people are, that's just stating facts. I see individual Russian vloggers on youtube and they able to win friends and gain admiration in a way that Chinese people cannot do. This extends from the common person to the leaders. Look at how Putin has managed Chechnya versus how the idiot dictator Xi has managed Xinjiang? Detention centers, laughably labeled as "vocational centers" which no one believes in. They could really be just doing propaganda at the detention centers but the very fact they exist just creates fertile soil for the CIA to drum up the wildest stories and this is enough to manage public opinion. In contrast, Putin has installed a Chechnyan strongman in control of Chechnya and has commissioned the building of a beautiful mosque in Moscow, inviting many Muslim leaders from Abbas to Erdogan to the opening. Xi is completely incapable of this, instead it is just crude regulations on religious practices which engenders more anger. Fucking retards, honestly.