For the people of Papua New Guinea, elated by the prospect of President Biden’s imminent arrival, the cancellation of his visit was disappointing. Communist China likely had quite a different reaction.

In the Chinese view, America pulling out of a meeting of the Pacific Forum in Papua New Guinea was definitely a dividend in the contest for power in the southern Pacific. Cancellation of Mr. Biden’s trip after the G-7 will “surely affect the U.S.’s diplomatic engagement with the Asia Pacific,” a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, Li Haidong, told Global Times, published by Beijing’s party paper, People’s Daily. 

“When the U.S. woos its so-called allies and partners in the region, those countries would question whether the U.S. policies have continuity or it would turn back on its commitment, doubting its leadership,” he said.

For Papua New Guinea, the disappointment was palpable. On the day the White House pulled the rug out from under the huge welcome that awaited Mr. Biden the front page of the southwestern Pacific nation’s tabloid News-Courier burst with excitement.

“Biden’s Security Arrives,” the headline said in large type, in a play-by-play account of the run-up to the event. The tabloid let readers know that no fewer than “1,000 local police” and members of the Papua New Guinea Defense Forces were lined up “to assist.” 

Above the article was a color photo of a droop-winged C117 Loadmaster, “U.S. Air Force” painted in big black letters on the gray hulk, which was said to be “transporting armored vehicles to be stationed in the country when the US President Joe Biden arrives.” 

All for us, the paper might as well have been saying, while the government announced a full holiday for the nation’s 10.3 million people, including, no doubt, remote tribal people whom some anthropologists say still practice cannibalism. 

Alas, it was not to be. 

While American diplomats scurried around in the capital, Port Moresby, full of explanations and apologies, Mr. Biden was on the phone, winging his way to the G-7 talkfest at Hiroshima, explaining that the spoilsports in Congress were messing up his plans. 

Mr. Biden “personally conveyed” to Prime Minister Marape that “he would be unable to travel to Papua New Guinea” to meet him “and other Pacific Island Forum leaders,” according to the White House. The reason was obvious: “the need to return to Washington for meetings with congressional leaders to ensure that Congress takes action by the deadline to avert default.” 

All was not lost, the president assured Mr. Marape. Secretary Blinken “would represent him” at the forum. All that, and the president “also invited the prime minister and other Pacific leaders to Washington, D.C., later this year for the second U.S. summit with the Pacific Islands Forum.” 

That was scant consolation, though, to Papua New Guineans to whom there would be no substitute for the honor of seeing America’s leader in their midst. 

Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, reflected the frustration of convincing everyone not to be upset when he said there was “a degree of fairly dramatic over-cranking in saying that pushing off a visit to Australia” and Papua New Guinea “speaks to the fundamentals of American diplomacy at this time.” 

The Aussies were probably not a problem. Their prime minister, Anthony Albanese, promptly canceled what was to have been a meeting of leaders of the Quad — India and Japan as well as Australia and America — at Sydney right after the G-7. From there Mr. Biden was to have gone to Port Moresby.

After all, as Mr. Albanese pointed out, the Quad chieftains would all be at the G-7, hosted by Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, with Mr. Albanese and India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on hand as observers. 

Skipping Papua New Guinea, though, was a little different considering the country’s relative obscurity and remoteness — and its importance as China competes for power and influence in the region. 

“When its own domestic political demands override its international agenda, the U.S. will turn back on its commitment with no hesitation,” Chen Hong at East China Normal University told Global Times. “Declining U.S. power only makes its strategy of containing China fragile.”

For some in Papua New Guinea, though, there was an upside. “Public holidays, liquor bans affect business,” the Port Moresby Post-Courier quoted liquor store owners as saying before the big day was canceled. Nor would tribal people have to worry about any dietary restrictions.