Xi Jinping’s growing diplomatic clout was on full display over the past week.

Things kicked off in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, where Xi hosted the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The enduring image from that meeting will be a beaming Russian President Vladimir Putin, walking hand-in-hand with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – just before the two shared a hearty laugh with Xi.
Over the next several days, Xi hosted a spate of key bilateral meetings with Global South leaders – the one-on-ones with India and Russia (again), alongside Malaysia, Indonesia, and North Korea stood out as particularly notable.
And of course, on Wednesday, many of those same leaders joined Xi in Beijing for a huge military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the ending of the “Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression” – or what most of the world refers to as World War II.

The big question: Was all this pageantry simply good optics for the Chinese?

Or will the past week mark a major turning point in China’s hoped-for shift to a New World Order?

In this week’s podcast, Trivium Co-founders Andrew Polk and Trey McArver hash it all out.

They also talk through how to make small talk when a fellow authoritarian leader floats the idea of immortality.

Popper, tolerance paradox, and centrist defensiveness

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