Xi's Words Fall Flat in Face of Escalating Rivalry The meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was touted as a moment of diplomatic thaw, but tensions remain high.
Beneath the surface, the two nations' relationship is strained, with decades of mistrust and competing interests fueling the animosity.
Xi's call for the US and China to be "partners, not rivals" evokes nostalgia for a bygone era of cooperative international relations, but it rings hollow in light of China's increasingly aggressive economic and military expansion.