ONE of the few revelations that emerged from last week’s Sino-US summit in Washington is that President Xi Jinping is “an expert on stone, aside from many other things, and he loves good granite”. At least that was the host’s verdict after the esteemed guest was obliged to examine the new White House helipad and the Marine One copter in which Donald Trump flits about. Xi’s reflections on the ordeal are unlikely ever to be revealed but, whether or not he’s actually a fan of granite, we do know that he’s an expert at being stony-faced — a feat that his American host, among many others, is incapable of emulating.

More seriously, though, it’s somewhat gratifying to see the top honchos of the world’s biggest military and economic powers playing footsie with one another. Trump’s first presidential campaign a decade ago was grounded in relentless hostility to China, and he has blamed the 2020 election outcome partly on Beijing’s interference — which is as absurd as his adversaries crediting Russia with the 2016 result. Noticeably, that plaint wasn’t revisited last week.

There was no joint statement at the end of what both sides officially declared to be a huge success. But whereas the mainstream Western liberal........

© Dawn