Xi Jinping meets Vladimir Putin as tensions grow with west

China’s Xi Jinping is holding his first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years on Friday as he hosts Russia’s Vladimir Putin, with the pair drawing closer as tensions grow with the west. Xi has not left China since January 2020, when the country was grappling with its initial Covid-19 outbreak and locked down the central city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected.He is