US President Donald Trump’s state visit to China last week will go down in history as the moment the US finally acknowledged Beijing’s ascendancy as a global superpower. That acknowledgment does not need to be articulated in a formal statement; it can be clearly read in the subtext of diplomatic behavior, global perception and shifting media coverage. During the summit, Trump’s delegation — which included prominent American corporate leaders — engaged with President Xi Jinping not from a position of absolute global dictation, but through a lens of defensive pragmatism.

The planet’s two most powerful chiefs locked horns in Beijing last week, with the whole world assessing every syllable and twitch from both. It was part performative theater, part…

US President Donald Trump’s state visit to China last week will go down in history as the moment the US finally acknowledged Beijing’s ascendancy as a global superpower. That…

Trump’s Beijing visit revealed a new reality that the U.S. can still project power, but it can no longer shape the global order alone