Xi’s up, Trump is down, but it may not matter

(CNN) – On the face of it, summit meetings this week between China’s domineering leader Xi Jinping and the scandal-plagued, unpopular US President Donald Trump are shaping up as a massive mismatch of political fortunes.

Xi is fresh from a Communist Party Congress that enshrined him as the strongest Chinese patriarch since Mao Zedong.

His personal prestige is mirrored in his nation’s soaring self-confidence: China is now stronger than at any time in the modern era and its global influence is quickly growing.

Trump, however, arrives in China Wednesday with the lowest approval ratings of any new president since records began.

A year after…

• Xi’s up, Trump…