Critics of the Trump administration’s early actions on global health—withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO) and paralyzing U.S.-funded international health programs—fear that those moves will cede Washington’s longstanding leadership role to Beijing. American power and prestige, they charge, will wane, and China’s will grow. The reality is worse. A U.S. retreat on global health, if sustained, will indeed open the door for China to exploit the abrupt, chaotic withdrawal of U.S.