China's moon landing proves it is more than just a paper dragon | Larry Elliott

As Donald Trump and Xi Jinping prepare to meet over the tariff war, both sides need a solution

For the US it was a wake-up call. Convinced that it was a world leader in the knowledge economy, the US was shaken out of its complacency when its communist rival announced a breakthrough in space exploration.

More than six decades separates the launch in 1957 by the Soviet Union of Sputnik - the first artificial satellite - and China's success last week in being the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, but the same question is posed by the two events: is US economic hegemony at risk?