At the high point of the White House state dinner, the hierarchy of the world’s two great powers was laid bare.
Around the head table at the centre of the room sat two of the most powerful leaders, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, alongside some of the most influential figures in American technology: Elon Musk, Tim Cook and Taiwanese-born leaders of two of the world's chipmakers, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su.
On one side was Beijing's political apparatus: Xi's closest diplomats, political architects and economic executors who help consolidate his authority and power.
On the other were the people steering America's capital and technological revolution in AI.
Among Xi's delegation were three of China's most senior political elites: Cai Qi, one of the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, and Politburo members Wang Yi and He Lifeng.
Forty years of reform and opening up transformed China into a manufacturing powerhouse and one of the world's largest economies.
When China was keeping a relatively low profile and seeking as many orders from the West as possible for its economic gain, the US had been a dominant force in the international system and central to Beijing's developmental calculations.
When Xi and Trump both agreed to engage constructively based on respect, fairness and equality, it showed how the relationship has evolved since Xi's first term.
Xi doesn't want China to replace America, he told Trump in Washington again last week.
"It is building coalitions abroad and it's also applying pressure including on America's allies," said Mikko Huotari, executive director of the German-based Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).