India, May 23 -- Days after hosting Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin, reinforcing China's emergence as a global power

There is a certain theatre to summitry, and Beijing staged it masterfully. First, Donald Trump arrived, then Vladimir Putin - each travelling thousands of miles to sit across from Xi Jinping in Beijing, now at the centre of geopolitics. The optics were unmistakable: China is now the world's indispensable interlocutor, and Xi its undisputed convener-in-chief.

The agenda of the Xi-Putin summit, held on Wednesday, was broad in scope and strategic in intent. The two leaders signed documents spanning trade, technology, scientific research and intellectual property, while ext...