On September 15 and 16, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping met with Russian President Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan. This was his first visit abroad since January 2020. The meeting between the two is particularly notable because of tensions with the West over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the CCP’s military harassment of Taiwan. The CCP will hold its 20th National Congress on October 16th. Why is Xi Jinping rushing to Central Asia ahead of such a critical meet
