LOS ANGELES — Some double-standards are two-faced in the extreme, but not all.
More and more members of the international commentariat (the cute word we use for the collective of appointed or self-appointed political pontificators around the world) are angry at China. Their claim is that Beijing is ducking its duties as a "responsible stakeholder." This is the now-famous standard set for it in a seminal foreign-policy speech by a top U.S. official a few years ago that China has seemed to accept.
In one sense, "responsible stakeholder" means that China, as a rising power, needs to take on obligations that strengthen the world order, even if they do not directly jack up China's interests overnight. At a simpler level, the term means that China needs to always play nice with others in the sandbox of politics.