Sixty days into his administration, President Joe Biden got a taste of what the next four years may look like: a new era of bitter superpower competition, marked by perhaps the worst relationship Washington has had with Russia since the fall of the Berlin Wall and with China since it opened diplomatic relations with the United States.

It has been brewing for years, as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China took sharp turns towards authoritarianism. But it blew up in open fashion this month after Mr Biden agreed with the proposition that Mr Putin is a "killer" and the Chinese, in a meeting with the US for the first time since the new administration took office, lectured the Americans about the error of their arrogant view that the world wants to replicate their freedoms.