Whether a government official or business executive, when you are invited to a dignitary's home or workspace, it is advisable to pay attention to the ambience. And if you are the president of a country or company please be mindful of what your decorations might be saying. Can you keep your guests guessing if there is any meaning in where you ask them to sit? Or perhaps you can plant a message in something as mundane as a flower arrangement.
 
This week's China Up Close is a case study in interior design diplomacy. It analyzes how the same room took on a different tenor for each of two meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, one last June and the other in April. It explains the deep connotations of the recent meeting's flower arrangement. It also compares the Xi-Blinken talks in April with another meeting held in the same room earlier that month between Xi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The presence -- then absence -- of spring flowers was one of the contrasts.
 
The column might give clues on deciphering a host's hidden message, or how to suggest such a message while preparing a meeting room. If you attend a business or diplomatic meeting in the next few weeks and are confronted with an arrangement of lotus flowers, or perhaps with some chameleon-like foliage, feel free to return to the column again.
 
Read Katsuji Nakazawa's analysis here.
 
Thank you for reading China Up Close. We are taking a short break and will be back in your inboxes on Thursday, May 23.