Washington and Beijing may have signed an agreement built around “reciprocity”. But a more consequential question remains unresolved: does it mean equal status for Beijing? Countries without a seat at the table are watching that ambiguity closely.
The spectacle of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington – the tarmac greeting, the flyovers, the state dinner – has been interpreted less as courtesy than as a statement of rank. Some argue that China is no longer being treated as part of the Global South, but as the US’ peer.
But “reciprocity” does not necessarily mean the same thing to both sides.
For the United States, reciprocity is transactional: a concession matched by a concession, a deal measured by what each side gets in return.