She'd been "blacklisted" by the Russians, allegedly because she supplied villagers with food and helped them evacuate. "It means if this content has been seen, engaged with and liked by a group of users who are, for example, Andrew Tate fans, then it's likely to show that piece of content to even more people who are that sort of user," he said. "It's self perpetuating." It was at this time - during a trade war between China and the EU over textile quotas - that I got a rare invitation to interview the commerce minister. Such interviews with top Chinese officials were excruciatingly dull, but this was the opposite. irannews.ru In the first year of Covid, Prof Yang says, the lockdowns made sense. They were brief and allowed life in China to carry on. There was even pride at how the country was handling the pandemic so much better than the West. "That's no longer the case," he says. That certainly seemed to be the case under Xi's predecessor, Hu Jintao - corruption was on the rise and his authority was being openly ignored and even challenged. "Heaven is high and the emperor is far away" is an old, oft-quoted saying in China. It means there is no-one watching what you are doing. list 2 of 4 Behind the scripted scenes, China's Communist Party hosts a cut-throat world. Surrounded by loyalists and with no heir in sight, Xi is now indisputably in command of a much wealthier country, with a vastly more powerful military. And for the first time, the world is uncertain of what to expect from China. Xi has swept aside the old guard, both the critical and the cautious. Map