We should have known that an international incident big enough to threaten the summit conference would inevitably involve triangle diplomacy and the China card.
We should stop smiling bravely and pretending that our hand is stronger without the China card in it.
One thing you never do is talk about the China card.
Long story short, an influential member of Congress played the China card, and the State Department folded.
As one senior Foreign Ministry official explained to me, Vietnam wants the freedom to play its "own China card."
Playing the "China card" did not resolve these difficulties, but it did regain the initiative.
A player also receives a VP for holding the China card at the end of the game.
Playing the China card has worked in our time too.
If you are Russia, a nation clearly stripped to its geopolitical skivvies, you play your China card.
Washington today seems to find little use for the China card in a game of solitaire.
