Xi is all smiles for Bill Gates but Blinken gets some frost

Still, Blinken did not walk away with much. Critically, Xi refused to reopen military communications channels, closed since last August after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. But there was talk of more regular meetings between officials, cultural exchanges and increasing commercial flights between the two countries. Qin is expected to visit the US in a few months. In a sign of how bad relations have become between the world's two biggest economies, the fact there was a meeting at all meant the trip was deemed successful. "He did a hell of a job," President Joe Biden said later…