BANGKOK/SINGAPORE - For months, China seemed content to cede the diplomatic initiative to a bullish Trump administration as border tensions flared between Cambodia and Thailand, with Beijing stressing that it has “its own way” of mediating the deadly conflict.

But as China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on Dec 29 hosted his Cambodian and Thai counterparts for three-way talks in the immediate aftermath of a newly brokered ceasefire, Beijing appeared not just ready for its share of credit as peacemaker, but also eager to assert that its steadier, lower-key diplomatic approach was, in fact, superior to Washington’s.