The leaders of China and Russia met in person on Sept. 15 to discuss regional security issues and further explicate their ambitions to counter U.S. influence abroad.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping spoke on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan.
It was the leaders’ first meeting since February and the first since Russia invaded Ukraine.
China has refrained from condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine or calling it an “invasion,” and has parroted Russian propaganda that the war was provoked by the United States—something for which Putin expressed gratitude on Thursday….