So, the first day of the U.S.-China ministerial meeting underway in Anchorage didn’t go so well. Both sides shredded the rigid protocol that usually guides these occasions to launch extended attacks. The effect was a notably undiplomatic clash between diplomats – one that quickly veered into jabs on domestic policy.

While China’s nothing-to-see-here denials of the well-documented mass incarcerations in Xinjiang provided a major target for American diplomats, Chinese delegates took aim at domestic American race relations, particularly anti-Black racism.