• Xi Jinping on Wednesday was playing nice with US business leaders and academics on Wednesday.
• He’s seeking to boost China’s faltering economy.
• But Xi is also trying to dent US global power on several fronts.

China’s President Xi Jinping presented an uncharacteristically affable image Wednesday, smiling broadly for US business leaders at a meeting in Beijing.

The Chinese leader sought to assure investors including Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm and Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group that the downturn in China’s economy, its biggest contraction in 15 years, would be over soon.

He went on to paint a bright picture of future US-China relations, saying, according to the Xinhua state news agency.

“Whether it is traditional fields such as economy, trade and agriculture, or emerging fields such as climate change and artificial intelligence,” he said, “China and the United States should help boost each other’s development.”

Only weeks ago, Xi struck a very different tone.