India, Oct. 3 -- The prevailing view about Chinese President Xi Jinping's State visit to the US late last month is that it was high on pageantry and low on substance. This misses the broader point: Modest deliverables were expected, and the visit was never about concrete outcomes; but it also consolidated a new stage in the recalibrated great power relationship and showed how US President Donald Trump and Xi are managing the changing equilibrium.

The gestures were extraordinary. Trump received Xi on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, something no US President had done for a visiting leader (except the Pope) since 1962. This was the two presidents' third meeting in less than a year. Two more are fixed: APEC in Shenzhen in November and the ...