Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted some 5,000 delegates from across the globe at a Belt and Road Forum in Beijing last week to discuss his signature infrastructure project, which began in 2013 to rebuild ancient trading routes across Eurasia. This year's gathering eschewed the pageantry of the inaugural summit in 2017, as Beijing tried to address international criticism by toning down its rhetoric and tightening oversight.
Here are three takeaways from the summit, and how Xi fared in the international spotlight.
Compared with his keynote speech two years ago, Xi was more muted on the "Belt and Road" initiative's growing presence in other countries. The president stuck to discussing steps China is taking to clean up the project, and vowed "zero tolerance" on corruption.