China Would Prefer Not To Dwell On Any Incident That May Or May Not Have Occurred Between Georgetown And The People's Liberation Army

Here's the online front page of the state-run English-language China Daily this afternoon. Welcome to China, Joe Biden! Hey, wasn't that goodwill mission supposed to include a basketball game?

Sure, inter-superpower relations may have decayed to the point where a friendly matchup between the Georgetown Hoyas and the People's Liberation Army Bayi Rockets turned into a Cold War-style foul-fest, which turned into a chippy Big East aggro-display and thence into a benches-emptying full-court battle royal. But that doesn't make it news. The basketball game is nowhere to be seen in the goodwill-tour coverage on the official story feed (" US vice president has noodles for lunch"). Harmonious society prevails.