US President Donald Trump’s highly-publicized summit with President Xi Jinping in Washington last week aimed to demonstrate a strong personal rapport. However, analysts suggest the meeting ultimately served as a diplomatic win for China, despite its formal presentation. The summit, intended to highlight Trump’s negotiating prowess, appears to have yielded little in concrete results for the United States. Trump reportedly hoped to leverage the grandeur of the Washington setting to gain concessions from Xi. Instead, the event primarily bolstered Xi Jinping’s international standing. The lack of significant breakthroughs has led observers to characterize the outcome as a “stalemate,” benefitting China’s position on the world stage.