ESSAY: Chairman Xi rules the room

A TV-inflected look at the Moscow summit and the Xi/Putin joint statement

The Moscow summit was a veritable Xi show from start to finish. The optics were naturally focused on the pomp and circumstance— honored guest greets, shakes and leaves —but even the fine print suggests Putin didn’t get much out of it except for the intangible benefit of Xi’s presence.  Xi’s bold embrace of Putin, already loathed in the West and now tagged as a war criminal,  is not inconsequential, but it may not be bankable, either.

Putin didn’t get much help on anything, least of all Ukraine, except for China’s dogged willingness to look the other way in the name of “neutrality.”

Beijing authorities have yet to condemn the invasion or even acknowledge the war—but the word patter of sacrosanct concern for Russia’s security (Ukraine is accorded no agency in the matter one way or another) is a useful smokescreen that allows Beijing to ignore its otherwise principled concerns about sovereignty.

As CCTV reporting showed it, Xi was far and away the dominant partner in the alleged meeting of equals, an imbalance that was further underscored by televised scenes of Putin taking notes while his guest did most of the talking. The guest, even if a bit jet-lagged, looked at once more robust and more relaxed than the hometown host during their meetings and photo ops.

CCTV editors evidently liked the camera angle on Putin as he listened intently to Xi, jotting down notes like a dutiful schoolboy. It was interspersed with scenes of a confidant Xi pontificating over half a dozen times during the voiced-over readout of the meeting.

When Putin finally got around to talking, Xi did not take notes. He never does.