Biden-Xi Meeting: Why China's President Took a New Diplomatic Approach

The Western press rarely shows China’s leader, Xi Jinping, smiling broadly or laughing, seeming to prefer photos of him that project a stern, even dour demeanor. Yet last week, Western media coverage of Xi’s face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Woodside, California, near San Francisco, featured image after image of a jovial Xi cheerily waving as he strolled along a garden path with Biden or smiling warmly as he gripped Biden’s hand on the red carpet. The Western …