David McWilliams: China will use Russia as its petrol station. This is Russia's – and maybe Putin's – lifeline

A once-in-a-generation shift in the global economy will profoundly change Ireland - financially, socially and geo-strategically. Events in China this week may seem remote, but they are not. Former leader Hu Jintao, manhandled out of the Communist Party's 20th congress, was the man who had brought peace and prosperity to China. He ran the show in Beijing from the early noughties to 2012, before anointing the strongman, President Xi Jinping, who is intent on taking China in a very different direction - both internally and externally. A direction that puts it on a collision course with the United States. Washington…