Beijing: At the end of a long red carpet, the two presidents and their wives stood before a 21-member honour guard as the national flags of both countries waved. They looked like two powers of equal stature, at ease with each other. Is this what strategic stability looks like?
The opening ceremony was the biggest takeaway from Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington last week. Announcements at the close on Friday were modest: tariff cuts on $30 bn of 'non-sensitive' goods in each direction, a new dialogue on AI safety and a 2-month extension of the trade truce due to expire on November 10. That truce, struck in Busan last October, ended a year of duelling tariffs, export controls and rare-earth restrictions.
