India, Sept. 26 -- The Trump-Xi summit leaves the US-China rivalry largely unchanged, managing competition rather than delivering a breakthrough

Xi Jinping walked down the red carpet at Joint Base Andrews this week for his first Washington visit in over a decade - the third face-to-face meeting between him and Donald Trump in under a year, after Busan in October and Beijing in May. The optics were unmistakably warm: a military review in the Rose Garden, a state dinner in the East Room, and both leaders speaking of mutual respect.

Beneath it, the same unresolved fault lines - trade, technology, Taiwan - remain exactly where they were. Xi's concerns were not disguised. On artificial intelligence, Beijing wants Washington to ease chip expo...