The military might of the People's Republic of China was on full display in a parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two on Wednesday.
Thousands of miles away, at the White House in Washington DC, Donald Trump was paying attention.
They were hoping I was watching, and I was watching, he said.
The American president didn't detail his thoughts about the massive celebration sprawled across Tiananmen Square, except that it was very, very impressive. The message from China – to Trump and the world - however, seems fairly clear.
There is a new and growing centre of power in the world and a new alternative to the American-backed order of the past century.
Trump's remarks during a meeting in the Oval Office with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, also on Wednesday, shed little light on the matter.
During a Tuesday podcast interview, Trump was nonchalant about the parade, saying he was not concerned about the Chinese show of force in front of Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and more than two dozen other heads of state.
By Tuesday night, however, he was grousing on his Truth Social website that China wasn't giving credit to the US for its support in World War Two. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America, he wrote.
Of course, China's parade – while dripping with futuristic weaponry - offered some historical narrative, as well – an attempt by the communist government to lay claim to a larger role in defeating fascism and imperialism in World War Two.
On Monday, Xi and Putin huddled with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an economic summit in Tianjin – an indication that frosty relations between China and India may be thawing in large part because of the heat generated by Trump's tariff policies.
Donald Trump's America first outlook on global trade has scrambled the world's economic and political alignments, and the apparent newfound rapport between the leaders of China, Russia, and India provided a powerful illustration of how some of the biggest pieces in the geopolitical puzzle could be coming together in challenging, but not entirely unpredictable, ways.
While Trump's domestic trade policies may be aimed at protecting American industry, the international implications show a world growing wary of US dominance.
It's an ambitious strategy that Trump has promised will lead to a second American golden age. But the dangers, whether on the parade grounds of Tiananmen square or in US courtrooms, are very real.
