China was not included in the deal, and President Barack Obama went out of his way to remind the region that this was no accident. TPP allows America - and not countries like China - to write the rules of the road in the 21st Century, which is especially important in a region as dynamic as the Asia-Pacific.
Nor was this ever just about the rules on trade. TPP was a core part of the Obama administration’s strategic "pivot to Asia". US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said that alongside boosting US exports, it would strengthen Washington’s key relationships in the Asia-Pacific, signal US commitment to the region and promote American values.
"Passing TPP is as important to me as another aircraft carrier," he insisted.
他还坚称：“对我而言，签署TPP的重要性如同又建造了一艘航空母舰。”
No wonder then that Beijing saw the US pivot to Asia, and the TPP within that, as a disguised plan to contain China’s growing might. Just this weekend, the official Chinese news agency described TPP as "the economic arm of the Obama administration’s geopolitical strategy to make sure that Washington rules supreme in the region".
But Donald Trump won the US presidency partly on a surge of voter hostility to trade deals and globalisation. Those who voted for him will see the promise to quit the TPP on his first day in office as honouring campaign pledges. That’s democracy.
Beijing will now encourage regional Asian governments to compare the reliability of Chinese pledges with American ones.
现在，北京将会鼓励亚洲地区各国政府对比中国承诺和美国承诺的可靠性。
America is an Asian power when it wants to be, Beijing will suggest, while China is the power that never leaves. As Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned bluntly on a visit to Washington in August, TPP put America’s "reputation on the line" with its partners in the region.
Already at the APEC summit in Peru last weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping told fellow regional leaders it was time for strong partnerships, win-win solutions and strategic initiatives.
China will not shut its door to the outside world but open more.
中国只会更加开放，而不会关闭对外开放的大门。
Officials travelling with President Xi lost no time in setting to work on discussion of the less ambitious trade deals Beijing backs, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, and Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, FTAAP.
In any zero sum view of the great power game in Asia, the US retreat from TPP is in China’s strategic interest, and not just because of the loss of an American-backed trade deal or a pillar of its strategic pivot to Asia.
Put bluntly, can the US still be trusted to come to the rescue of its Asian allies if cowed or threatened by a rising China? Whatever the answer, the fact that American allies are even asking the question is already good news for China.