The pandas arrived on a FedEx 777F. Let that settle. Two animals owned by the Chinese state, transported on an American logistics network, landing at the world’s busiest airport to become the most expensive tenants in Zoo Atlanta’s history. Ping Ping and Fu Shuang — born 2020, leased for ten years, quarantined for thirty days in a biosecure facility that cost more to build than most American households earn in a decade. President Xi announced the loan during a summit with President Trump that produced, by all serious accounts, almost nothing else. The pandas were the deliverable. The headline outcome. The proof that the relationship still functions. This is not panda diplomacy. This is panda theater. And the distinction matters because it reveals the actual architecture of great power competition in 2026: not a cold war, not a hot peace, but a managed decay where symbols substitute for substance because substance...