Beijing blackout: Why we may never know what happened between Trump and Xi 

The political, economic and security competition between China and the U.S. — the world’s two greatest economies and most powerful militaries — is nothing less than a titanic struggle. The fact that the U.S. is the leader of the free world and that China now dominates the modern “Axis of Evil” that includes Iran, North Korea and Russia makes it also an existential conflict for Western civilization — with the fate of Taiwan constituting the ultimate test case.

In that context, last week’s summit meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping was a resoundingly anti-climactic dud, apparently accomplishing nothing to resolve either Taiwan’s future or the larger issue it symbolizes. Instead, a meeting with cosmic stakes became little more than an exercise in diplomatic reciprocity between a Chinese totalitarian and an aspiring would-be dictator, in thrall to Xi and almost all the world’s other tyrants (with the notable exception of their front-line proxy, the Islamic Republic of Iran).

Xi’s objectives for the U.S. summit were three-fold.

First, he wanted validation by the American president that China is an equal player in the international geopolitical game. Xi got that with a lavish White House reception that more than matched Xi’s welcoming ceremonies for Trump in May, and an........

© The Hill