China's Xi Reemerges at Top of Anti-US Bloc

A humanitarian crisis on the scale of the one unfolding at the Nepal-Tibet border might have filled a leader's entire agenda in any other country, but not in China. Instead of flying south, Xi Jinping has traveled west, to Kyrgyzstan, to stamp his authority on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The SCO turns 25 this year with its summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. Also in attendance are Vladimir Putin of Russia, Narendra Modi of India and Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian. Xi is expected to meet them all, but China's powerful leader isn't there just to show his face...