Xi Jinping’s growing diplomatic clout was on full display over the past week.

• Things kicked off in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, where Xi hosted the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
• The enduring image from that meeting will be a beaming Russian President Vladimir Putin, walking hand-in-hand with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – just before the two shared a hearty laugh with Xi.
• Over the next several days, Xi hosted a spate of key bilateral meetings with Global South leaders – the one-on-ones with India and Russia (again), alongside Malaysia, Indonesia, and North Korea stood out as particularly notable.
• And of course, on Wednesday, many of those same leaders joined Xi in Beijing for a huge military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the ending of the “Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression” – or what most of the world refers to as World War II.

The big question: Was all this pageantry simply good optics for the Chinese?

• Or will the past week mark a major turning point in China’s hoped-for shift to a New World Order?

In this week’s podcast, Trivium Co-founders Andrew Polk and Trey McArver hash it all out.

• They also talk through how to make small talk when a fellow authoritarian leader floats the idea of immortality.