"Fruitful" said the People's Daily, while an upbeat China Daily described the Mar-a-Lago meet as a "win-win" tete-a-tete.

Tellingly, Chinese state media coverage of President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States was whitewashed of any mention of the dramatic April 6 U.S. missile attack on Syria, first revealed to Xi during a ceremonial state banquet. Chinese news observers had to wait until after Xi was safely out of the U.S. to get the news and let fly their true feelings about the provocative timing of the provocative act.

The contrast of Chinese and Western coverage is a tale of two summits, or more precisely, the two conflicting tales of the same summit.