Once a decade, the world's two most consequential powers stage a ritual of proximity — not quite partnership, not quite confrontation. This week, President Trump received President Xi Jinping at the White House with the full theater of state ceremony, even as the two nations remain entangled in disputes over semiconductor access, expiring tariff truces, and the unresolved question of Taiwan's future. Beneath the military bands and bomber flyovers lies a deeper human tension: whether shared spectacle can substitute for shared purpose, and whether two cautious, suspicious leaders can find ground