On Friday morning, Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed the symbolic high point of his first state visit to the United States — a 21-gun salute as he stood with President Barack Obama outside the White House.
For most Americans, it was a sideshow: the main news networks were deep into their fourth straight day of blanket coverage of Pope Francis' historic U.S. visit.
Xi's U.S. trip has — at least in terms of U.S. media coverage — been firmly overshadowed by the wildly popular pontiff, raising questions over its timing and contrasting sharply with the wall-to-wall coverage of Xi by Chinese media.