China May See Donald Trump as a Paper Tiger

In his remarkable run for the White House last year, Donald Trump talked a lot about “winning.” But in his administration’s initial interactions with China, it’s Beijing that appears to have scored the biggest victory, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reiterated a talking point the Chinese have long embraced. During his inaugural visit to China last month, the new secretary described the foundations of the U.S.-China relationship as “win-win cooperation.” More than three weeks after Tillerson uttered the phrase, it continues to echo in high-level foreign policy discussions here and abroad, as analysts struggle to divine the direction of what could reasonably be called the world’s most important relationship.

Journalists continued to pepper the administration about Tillerson’s word choice Wednesday on a State Department call previewing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first face-to-face meeting with the president, which kicks off Thursday afternoon at Trump’s “winter White House,” his Mar-a-Lago resort. By about the third iteration of the question,