Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing in a much weaker position than he did more than four years ago, when he launched his invasion of Ukraine shortly after his last visit.

US President Donald Trump left Beijing after much fanfare. However, he was criticised back at home for failing to deliver on any key aspect of American interests, such as committing China to pressuring Iran to end the war on US terms. His popular support is at a historic low.

Putin, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are usually grouped together by foreign pundits to represent a new age of the strongman.

In fact, there is even a book with the title, The Age of the Strongman: How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy Around the World, by Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times’ chief foreign affairs commentator.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu were often added to that trio. But Orban is yesterday’s news. Now, both Putin and Netanyahu are wanted by the International Criminal Court as suspected war criminals.

If there was an age of the strongman, it didn’t last long. With the exception of Xi, all the others have been politically weakened and their countries’ global standing – if not their economies – severely undermined. There are diverse reasons for that, some common while others are specific to their domestic circumstances.