A few years back there was a news cycle where a bunch of western outlets reported on this image of Xi Jinping being served two cups of tea at a Communist Party meeting, generally casting it as some kind of power move, “look at me and how much more important I am than all of you”, type thing. Very similar to the reporting around Donald Trump getting two scoops of ice cream at a White House dinner while demanding that everyone else get one.
Further investigation revealed that this image was taken at the start of a very long Party meeting, which likely explains why Xi felt the need for two drinks, and that furthermore that it has been expected for Party members in China to pay for their own drinks at these meetings since the days of Mao, so the story was a fairly ridiculous mix of projection, Orientalism, sinophobia, and anti-Chinese propaganda, which the OP is invoking for comedic purposes by comparing it with an image of Zelenskyy with two glasses of water in front of him.
A few years back there was a news cycle where a bunch of western outlets reported on this image of Xi Jinping being served two cups of tea at a Communist Party meeting, generally casting it as some kind of power move, “look at me and how much more important I am than all of you”, type thing. Very similar to the reporting around Donald Trump getting two scoops of ice cream at a White House dinner while demanding that everyone else get one.
Further investigation revealed that this image was taken at the start of a very long Party meeting, which likely explains why Xi felt the need for two drinks, and that furthermore that it has been expected for Party members in China to pay for their own drinks at these meetings since the days of Mao, so the story was a fairly ridiculous mix of projection, Orientalism, sinophobia, and anti-Chinese propaganda, which the OP is invoking for comedic purposes by comparing it with an image of Zelenskyy with two glasses of water in front of him.
Thanks for the explanation. Humans are strange.