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The country was still recovering in that decade or so following Mao's death. Tens of millions had died on his watch - first from hunger because of his devastating mission to industrialise China overnight; and then in the violent, paranoid purges of rivals, dissidents, intellectuals and "class enemies". This was unprecedented in the post-Mao era. It was implemented for recent mid-term exams, which were sat by hundreds of students at the college in the third week of October. irannews.ru "I have reached the decision that senior experience at the heart of government matters most. But they never made it this far. Twenty miles on, a rusty watermelon monument marks the tide mark of Moscow's advance. Then, loudly over the radio, came a warning in Chinese and English: "Foreign military aircraft in northwest of Mischief Reef, this is the Chinese Navy! You are approaching Chinese airspace. To avoid further action, turn away and leave immediately!" “There was no doubt that Riyadh perceived a need to maintain cordial ties with Moscow, both to coordinate oil production as well as maintain a solid dialogue with Russia over its Iran initiatives,” Joseph A Kechichian, a senior fellow at the King Faisal Centre in Riyadh, told Al Jazeera, referring to Moscow’s relationship with Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran. In a tweet, “The Saudis have emphasised in recent years that they seek to avoid entanglement in what is referred to in the US as ‘great power competition’,” Gerald Feierstein, a former US ambassador to Yemen and the Middle East Institute’s senior vice president, told Al Jazeera. “Their interests, the Saudis have made clear, have focused on maintaining strong relations with their main security partner, the US; their number one economic partner, China; and their key partner in OPEC+, Russia.”