China's 'new model' asks too much of the US

IT has been suggested that the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may have handed a "diplomatic victory" to China. He "appears" to have endorsed China's proposal of the so-called "new model of major-country relations", a strategy to prevent the US from intervening in what China considers is Beijing's foreign-policy domain.

There really was no victory. And any claim of victory was premature.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had offered the concept of his "new model", Beijing's framework for US-China relations, to President Barack Obama in California in June 2013. The model calls for "no conflict or confrontation, mutual respect for each country's national interests, and win-win cooperation".