Before Trump even lands in Beijing, read Xinhua.

In Xi’s China, Xinhua is not just an official propaganda mouthpiece. It is often one of the clearest channels through which the leadership tells the world how it wants a major political moment to be understood.

Its latest editorial on US-China relations looks like familiar diplomatic boilerplate: “mutual respect”, “peaceful coexistence”, “win-win cooperation”. But read closely, it is Beijing’s rulebook for Trump’s visit.

Leader-to-leader diplomacy means boss-to-boss politics. Praise for Xi’s “long-term strategic perspective” is also a quiet criticism of America’s short-termism. The metaphor of “two giant ships” says China is too big to be sunk without consequences for everyone. And the red lines are now stated openly: Taiwan, human rights, the Communist Party system and China’s development rights.

Trump may be arriving in Beijing with a businessman’s instinct for deals. Xinhua is telling him that Beijing is not merely negotiating a transaction. It is trying to define the terms of coexistence.

I explain below how to read this editorial — and why, in today’s China, official language is often where the real political signal is hiding in plain sight.