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n diplomacy, images carry meaning. In just four days, Chinese President Xi Jinping gathered some 30 world leaders to all pose beside him, each thereby endorsing his rhetoric on rebalancing the world order. Xi placed himself at the center, positioning China as an assertive and recognized global power.

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With Tianjin summit, Xi puts China at the center of a new anti-Western world order

On Wednesday, September 3, as he made his way up Beijing's Eternal Peace avenue to review the 45 military divisions on parade, he did so under the approving gaze of Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a quartet assembled for the first time.