Despite a long list of potential pitfalls, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to China, the first by a senior member of the Trump administration, passed off relatively smoothly although there were no tangible gains to show.
On the positive side, there was none of the awkwardness of the kind seen in Washington as U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held the first summit meeting between two of the West's biggest allies.
Even a tweet from Trump criticizing China the night before Tillerson landed in Beijing did not, at least in public, create any discord.