But in the photo from Washington, it is the Americans who appear to be older.

“Over the past 100 years, American officials have gone from young to old, and Chinese officials have gone from old to young,” one Weibo user wrote. “This has a lot to do with the current state of the two countries. America today is just as closed off as China was 100 years ago.”

The juxtaposed photos were even shared, at one point, by the official Weibo account of the Communist Youth League. (That post was later deleted.)

The symbolism is tantalizingly potent. The 1901 accord is regarded in China as a national humiliation, particularly by the Communist Party, which seeks to present itself as having rescued the nation from a century of being pushed around by foreign powers.

One of the Qing court’s representatives in Beijing that day “was so feeble that he had to be lifted out of his chair by two men,” The New York Times reported at the time. The Qing dynasty — China’s last — collapsed not long after.

More recently, China’s rise has created deep tensions with the United States. But after the latest trade talks between the two countries, China seems to have emerged well positioned.