Xi returns to Beijing after attendance to SCO summit, visits to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan

BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing Friday midnight after wrapping up attendance to the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and state visits to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Ding Xuexiang, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee; Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee; State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi; and He Lifeng, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and head of the National Development and Reform Commission, returned to Beijing on the same plane.

On Friday afternoon local time, Xi headed straight to the airport after concluding his attendance to the SCO Samarkand summit. He was seen off by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev outside the summit's venue and Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov at the airport.