US President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing hoping to showcase deal-making. He left having showcased something else: the changing balance of global power. The most striking image of the visit was not a trade announcement, a tariff rollback or a major business agreement. It was Chinese President Xi Jinping personally escorting Mr Trump through Zhongnanhai, the heavily guarded compound at the heart of Communist Party authority.

Beijing understood precisely what it was doing. Access to Zhongnanhai is political symbolism of the highest order ~ an invitation into the nerve centre of the Chinese state. The message was unmistakable: China no longer sees itself as a rising power seeking acceptance from the West, but as an equal pole in a rapidly evolving world order. For years, Mr Trump built his political identity around confrontation with China. He accused Beijing of exploiting America, launched tariff wars and repeatedly framed China as the central threat to US economic power. Yet the tone of this visit was dramatically different. Mr Trump praised Xi as “warm” and “smart”, and publicly spoke of future cooperation. The shift was not merely personal diplomacy.

It reflected strategic necessity. The United States now faces a........

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