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It wasn’t just the Chinese president who came to Saudi Arabia: Due to the current crisis between Washington and Riyadh, the deepest in the history of their strategic alliance, Xi Jinping’s visit last week had a very special frame of reference. It was not a “fist salute” like that of US President Joe Biden with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) in the summer; Xi’s reception was more comparable to that of Donald Trump on his first trip abroad as President in 2017. A bilateral state visit and a summit with Arab heads of state and government awaited Xi.