May 15, 2026 · Beijing Day 2 — Zhongnanhai lunch, Boeing 200, Nvidia H200

One PM Beijing time, Friday May 15, 2026. Trump's motorcade pulls into Zhongnanhai — the walled compound just west of the Forbidden City that foreign leaders almost never see inside. Xi has staged the closing event of the summit as a working lunch at his own kitchen table. The progression from yesterday's Temple of Heaven cosmology to today's private dining room is the textbook Chinese-host signal of personal relationship. Whether the signal converts to substance is the question. Pip and Bash, ~28 minutes, sourced inline. - **The handshake** — Xi inverted Trump's hand, ten pumps, and body-language experts called it *"an absolute show of dominance"* - **The Zhongnanhai menu** and what the food choices signaled to Beijing watchers - **Trump's Boeing 200 announcement** — the big number, and Beijing's silence in response - **Nvidia H200 clearance** — the AI-lobby payoff, and what it tells you about the trajectory of US export controls - **Taiwan language hardened** from yesterday's "dangerous" to today's *"clashes and even conflicts"* - **The US-vs.-China media split**, and the Weibo and Douyin memes lighting up Chinese social - **The September 24 return invitation** — *"constructive strategic stable relations,"* and why the date matters Sourced from Newsweek, Yahoo News, CNBC, the Washington Post, and the South China Morning Post. More analysis at [Power Moves Before Policy Does](https://annardudley.substack.com).