Chinese President Xi Jinping has welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing, in what is the Chinese leader’s first meeting with a Western leader since he secured an unprecedented third five-year term last month. While Xi greeted the German leader without a face mask, both refrained from shaking hands, and sat down for talks at two long tables keeping them at a distance. During Scholz’s inaugural visit to the country as German head of government, the two leaders are set to hold talks on a range of issues in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, including bilateral relations, Russia’s invas…