When India chose to rise toe to toe and go head-to-head with China on US soil

WASHINGTON: In times to come, the fall of 2015 may well be recognized as the moment when India chose to rise toe to toe and go head-to-head with China on American soil and the world stage despite not seeing eye to eye, and despite being the smaller power.

The visuals and the commentary — "Xi said, he said," someone said — described it all, with the two countries' leaders' entry points, destinations, and meetings in the US providing plenty grist for comparison and contrast.

President Xi arrived in the US via Seattle, a Pacific city so orientalist that its airport has signs in Mandarin and Japanese. He presided over a meeting of tech heavyweights that included who's who of American CEOs — Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, and IBM's Ginni Rometty, among others. Forbes quickly computed that the total market cap for all companies at the meeting was $2.5 trillion.