Reading beyond the optics

Politics first: Xi with China’s first lady Peng Liyuan (left) along with Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump during their state visit in Washington DC. Xi had arrived for his visit without the huge, high-powered business delegation many had expected. — Bloomberg

JUST hours after the Trump-Xi Summit in Washington during the week, commentators were already offering full-blown forensic analyses of bilateral relations.

That is precisely how not to analyse such a vast subject. A snapshot approach to the event, which as events go is more symbolic than substantive, deprives any understanding of superpower relationships of its essential contexts.