Gee, all that failure in China. Two rows of men staring at each other and

[paleotn]

2. Failure for the US. Not for China.

The internal propaganda for Xi was more than worth it. "Look at the stupid Americans! Not so scary, eh?" Censors actually let Chinese online comments run wild. That doesn't usually happen. Really ever.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-china-viral-posts-online_n_6a058f12e4b0def65bfc015c?d_id=11920384&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=threads&utm_campaign=us_main

Roll out the red carpet and treat him like he's a legitimate world leader, i.e., an equal, and Trump will do anything for you. A kibosh on China tariffs at least for a while. But nothing on the Chinese side was formally agreed to, so the US gets nada. Plus, the subtle insults were priceless and have foreign governments the world over chuckling at the orange moron and the once proud superpower stupid and soft enough to elect him. The US is now a laughing stock globally and China's prestige as an alternative grows.

So no, it wasn't a failure. It just depends on who's perspective you're looking from.