Hot on the heels of his summit with US president Donald Trump, China’s Xi Jinping hosted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing on May 19 and 20. Headlines spoke of multiple trade agreements, warnings against a return to the law of the jungle in international relations, and a joint declaration on building a multipolar world. But underneath that it was also obvious that this is not a partnership of equals any more – and hasn’t been for some time. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion o