When the world’s two most powerful men finally decided to sit down together last month, they were both coming off of major domestic victories. U.S. President Joe Biden, after corralling lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, had just signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, the largest of its kind in decades. And Xi Jinping, certainly with less corralling, had just been enshrined by the Chinese Communist Party as one of the country’s most revered leaders, on par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.  But over their video call, Biden quickly eschewed any pomp and circumstance. “Next time I hope we get to do it face-to-face like we used to when we traveled through China,” President Biden said, referring to his trips to China as vice president. “We have spent an awful lot of time talking to one another, and I hope we can have a candid conversation tonight as well. Maybe I should start more formally, although you and I have never been that formal with one another.” �