There is a cottage industry emerging of analyses on the Biden-Xi summit in San Francisco. Most of the writings fall into, for want of a better description, the glass half-full or the glass half-empty or, in some extreme cases, a glass totally empty school.

What meaning one makes of the four-hour meeting, the atmospherics around President Xi Jinping’s visit and other events depends a great deal on where one stands. The US-China relationship is too complex and complicated to be hastily unpacked and served with a dismissive attitude.