Panda diplomacy: Merkel and Xi pushed into awkward embrace before G20

By Noah BarkinBERLIN (Reuters) - When President Xi Jinping took the stage in Davos in January and painted China as a champion of free markets ready to fill the global leadership role vacated by the United States, German officials couldn't help but chuckle.Six months later, as Xi arrives in Berlin for a highly symbolic visit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before a Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, what seemed laughable in the thin mountain air of the Swiss Alps is not so absurd any more.Despit