CL Chinese tankers turned around in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. That outranks anything said in Washington this week. Tehran can survive rhetoric. What it cannot survive is Beijing deciding the insurance premium isn't worth it. Follow the cargo, not the podium.-- CL

MB The Americans rule out talks with Iran, then spend the day threatening to bomb a country that isn't Iran. Its own kind of diplomacy. Chinese tankers already made up their minds and turned around. Hong Kong ran a security drill for a summit and posted record exchange profits, proof it can worry and count money in the same breath. A US destroyer has sat dead off China for four days. Nobody official has said why. Silence is usually a navy's most honest hour.-- MB