At a moment when trade truces feel fragile and the Middle East reshapes global energy flows, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping prepare to meet at the White House — a gathering that may reveal less through its declarations than through its silences. The encounter arrives as borrowing costs climb to generational highs, oil moves through a strategically vital strait at wartime volumes, and corporations from Uber to Chevron recalibrate their futures against a backdrop of compounding uncertainty. History will note that even the names of waterways became contested ground this week, as th