One of the more troubling yardsticks by which to measure President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria was the gratification it seemed to offer American adversaries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the decision “correct,” and senior Iranian regime cleric Ayatollah Hassan Ameli asserted that it “hands [Syria] to Iran.” The state-run media of Syria’s Assad regime gloated predictably.

Conspicuously quiet on the matter, however, was the country the U.S. increasingly regards as its chief rival—China. Beijing’s silence reveals how much, for all its bluster, it continues to rely on the U.S.-led international order to secure its own interests…

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