“The whole world is watching our meeting,” Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, said as he welcomed President Trump to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

“我们会面，现在可以说是举世瞩目，”中国领导人习近平在北京人民大会堂欢迎特朗普总统时说。

That wasn’t an overstatement.

这并非夸大其词。

Cameras from different countries were trained on the leaders of the world’s largest economies, allowing pundits to pick apart the diplomatic meaning of their words and gestures. Those cameras offered a rare opportunity for Chinese people, too: seeing Mr. Xi up close and from angles not usually presented by state media.

来自不同国家的摄像机将镜头对准了这两个世界最大经济体的领导人，让评论人士得以仔细剖析他们言辞和手势背后的外交含义。这些镜头也为中国民众提供了一个罕见的机会，得以近距离观察习近平，从国家媒体通常不会呈现的角度去审视他。

And some found the visuals an occasion for comedy.

而一些人发现这些画面成了提供笑料的契机。

On China’s censored internet, political humor and honest online discussion are dangerous. Talking about Mr. Xi is the top taboo. The danger is grave within the country, and even Chinese people living abroad fear for their families back home. So to comment on the summit, Chinese speakers flocked to Threads, X and other open platforms that are banned in China, some scaling the Great Firewall with a VPN.

在受审查的中国互联网上，政治幽默和诚实的网络讨论是危险的。谈论习近平更是头号禁忌。在国内，这种危险极为严重，甚至居住在海外的华人也为国内的家人担忧。因此，为了评论这次峰会，中文用户涌向Threads、X等在中国被禁的开放平台，一些人使用VPN翻越网络防火墙。

The many jokes and ironic comments posted offered a window both into how the more liberal-minded Chinese public views Mr. Xi and his leadership style, and into how political opinion survives when it has nowhere else to go. When criticizing leadership directly can lead to jail, jokes become more than jokes. They are, as some people commented, equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, an act of trying to find humor in absurdity and cruelty. (These humorous takes remain anonymous, even when posted on platforms outside the Great Firewall, and the users can be difficult to track down.)

网上发布的许多笑话和讽刺性评论提供了一个窗口，既展示了思想更开明的中国公众如何看待习近平及其领导风格，也揭示了政治观点无处表达时将会如何存续。当直接批评领导人可能导致入狱时，笑话便不再只是笑话而已。正如一些人评论的那样，它们一半是搞笑，一半是心酸，是在荒诞和残酷中寻找幽默的行为。（这些幽默的表达都是以匿名进行，即使是发布在防火墙以外的平台上也是如此，用户则往往难以追踪。）

Mr. Xi, the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, is on the front page of the official People’s Daily nearly every day. He dominates the prime-time television news. And yet he remains a mysterious figure even to his own people. Unlike Mr. Trump, who posts constantly on social media and regularly takes questions and even unscheduled phone calls from the press, Mr. Xi is always choreographed. He reads from a script and strikes the same pose in every photograph with world leaders.

作为自毛泽东以来最有权势的中国领导人，习近平几乎每天都出现在官方《人民日报》的头版，主导着黄金时段的电视新闻。然而，甚至对本国人民来说，他仍然是个神秘的人物。特朗普经常在社交媒体上发帖，定期回答记者提问，甚至接听媒体的临时电话采访；与他不同，习近平的一举一动总是经过精心编排。他照本宣科，在与世界各国领导人的每一张合影中都摆出相同的姿势。

外国媒体出席此次峰会为中国人民提供了一个难得的机会，得以从国家媒体通常不会呈现的角度了解习近平。

During the summit, some social media users mocked this predictability, commenting that Mr. Xi appeared to be exactly the same height as Mr. Trump — and nearly every visiting world leader he has appeared with in photos. As a 32-year-old tutor in southern Fujian Province put it on Threads, “I’d be much more interested in seeing Yao Ming meet Xi Jinping,” referring to the former N.B.A. player who is 7 foot 6 inches tall, “just because they’d be the same height, too.” He asked not to be named for fear of government retribution.

峰会期间，一些社交媒体用户嘲笑这种墨守成规，评论说，习近平的身高似乎与特朗普完全一样——而且与所有来访的世界领导人合影时，他和对方的身高都是一样的。福建省南部一位32岁的辅导老师在Threads上写道：“我更想看姚明和习近平见面，”他指的是身高2.29米的前NBA球员，“因为他们俩也会一样高。”他因担心政府报复而要求匿名。

The stodgy, ritualized language Mr. Xi used in his remarks during the summit — “great changes unseen in a century,” “the chaotic international landscape” and “the world has once again come to a new crossroads” — prompted a different kind of derision. These were not abstract phrases to many young Chinese, but rather words drilled into them for college exams under the required curriculum known as Introduction to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

习近平在峰会讲话中使用的那种枯燥、仪式化的语言——“百年变局加速演进”、“国际局势变乱交织”和“世界又走到新的十字路口”——引发了另一种嘲讽。对许多中国年轻人来说，这些并不是抽象的词语，是在必修课《习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想概论》中灌输给他们的词汇，是他们必须通过的大学考试。

Some people joked that, having listened to Mr. Xi’s speech, Mr. Trump could now appreciate what it was like to sit through Xi Jinping Thought classes in college.

一些人开玩笑说，听了习近平的讲话后，特朗普现在大概能体会到在大学里上习近平思想课是什么感觉了。

When some Chinese social media users suggested that boredom was driving Elon Musk, one of the business leaders who accompanied Mr. Trump, to post nonstop on his social media site, X, one Thread account noted dryly that he must be experiencing “Xi Jinping Thought classes level of boredom.”

一些中国社交媒体用户表示，陪同特朗普的商业领袖之一埃隆·马斯克在其社交媒体网站X上不停发帖，大概是因为无聊，一个Threads账号冷冷地指出，他肯定正在体会着“习近平思想课级别的无聊”。

Another element of the summit was instantly, uncomfortably familiar to many Chinese people watching the welcome ceremony. As Mr. Trump walked the red carpet, he seemed charmed by the dozens of children who greeted him waving flowers and Chinese and American flags and chanting welcome slogans while jumping up and down. “I think I was particularly impressed by those children!” Mr. Trump told Mr. Xi. “They were happy. They were beautiful. … Those children were amazing. They represent so much.”

峰会的另一个环节会让许多观看欢迎仪式的中国民众瞬间感到一种令人不适的熟悉感。当特朗普走在红毯上时，他似乎被几十个向他致意的孩子们迷住了，他们挥舞着鲜花和中美两国国旗，蹦跳着高呼欢迎口号。“我想那些孩子给我留下了特别深刻的印象！”特朗普对习近平说。“他们很快乐。他们很漂亮……那些孩子太棒了。他们代表了太多东西。”

But for many accounts commenting on the ceremony, those children represent something else completely: the forced conformity demanded by ruthless authoritarians. Social media users paired the video of the children with footage of North Koreans cheering for their leader, Kim Jong-un.

但对于许多评论这场仪式的账号来说，这些孩子代表着完全不同的东西——无情的威权主义者要求下的被迫顺从。社交媒体用户将孩子们的视频与朝鲜人欢呼迎接其领导人金正恩的画面并排放在一起。

Some accounts said those children looked like something from China during the Mao era, when China was more isolated. During that period, the few visiting international dignitaries were welcomed by children jumping up and down. They were there for the Cambodian leader Norodom Sihanouk throughout the 1970s, and for President Ronald Reagan, who visited in 1984. But by the time President Bill Clinton visited Beijing in 1998, the visual message was different. He gave a speech and took questions from college students at Peking University. To many Chinese, that felt like progress. Thursday’s ceremony felt like a reversal. Even the children’s clothes, some social media users commented, felt old-fashioned.

一些账号称，这些孩子看起来像是来自毛泽东时代的中国，那时的中国更加封闭。在那个时期，为数不多的来访国际政要都会受到蹦蹦跳跳的孩子们的欢迎。整个20世纪70年代，柬埔寨领导人西哈努克都被他们这样迎接；1984年，他们也这样欢迎来访的里根总统。但到了1998年克林顿总统访问北京时，视觉呈现的信息已经大不相同——克林顿在北京大学发表演讲，并回答了大学生的提问。对许多中国人来说，那感觉像是一种进步。而周四的仪式感觉像是在倒退。一些社交媒体用户评论说，甚至孩子们的衣服也让人觉得老气。

The welcome ceremony, wrote a user on X posting under the name Fearless James, a 47-year-old small-business owner in California, exposed a familiar political aesthetic that enthusiasm must be orchestrated and emotions rehearsed. He asked not to be named because he still visits his family in China and worries about government retribution.

加州一位47岁的小企业主在X上以“Fearless James”为名发帖写道，这场欢迎仪式暴露了一种熟悉的政治美学：热情必须经过精心编排，情感必须经过排练。由于他仍然会回中国探亲，并担心遭到政府的报复，他要求不透露自己的真实姓名。

“Is China moving backward?” he asked. “A society that is truly confident doesn’t need children chanting slogans to prove its enthusiasm. A country that is genuinely open doesn’t need to repackage diplomatic events as collective performances.”

“中国在倒退吗？”他问道。“一个真正自信的社会不需要孩子们高呼口号来证明热情。一个真正开放的国家不需要把外交活动重新包装成集体表演。”