The leader to watch. No not Putin, Xi Zinping

Putin's time is up. Not immediately but sometime in the foreseeable future, perhaps a year or two. The war in Ukraine is never going to go his way and at some point Russians, both military, civilian and spooks, will get fed up with him. But President Xi Zinping, on the other hand, is pretty well boss of China for life now that he has been accepted for a third term in office. His grip on power is like superglue. You can't get him off you. It's extraordinary how one man can be so powerful in a country the size of China. But he is the supreme absolute ruler and anyone he doesn't like or approve of will just get marched off into the sunset. Look at poor old Hu Jintao, president of China between 2003 and 2013. He was sitting in a posh high-profile seat at the Communist Party Congress but then got strangely shunted out. He didn't look ill, so I guess Xi decided the old boy, aged 79, should go into retirement and stay there. One word from him and officials took him by the elbow and escorted him off the dais. There will be a lot that in the future. Anyone who dares raise even a fingernail in disloyalty will be shafted one way or the other. So for the rest of the world, especially the US-led West, we have to watch out for this man. He is power hungry, power dominated, and so single-minded that if he says it's time to sort out those damned Taiwanese, China's burgeoning aircraft carrier fleet will be on the move into the Taiwan Strait before you can say hot noodles.