Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) meets with visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) in Beijing, China, Feb. 21, 2009. [Yao Dawei/Xinhua]

If the point of Hillary Rodham Clinton's maiden voyage overseas in her new role as United States secretary of state was to assure and reassure, she made it.

If her four-country Asia trip was to present a fresh American approach to world affairs, she did so.

In Beijing at least, Clinton's visit delivered what is needed desperately - a sense of certainty in the diplomatic vacuum between two presidencies.

Until very recently, many had waited anxiously for the new administration's China overtures, wondering if the precious signs of stabilization in bilateral ties at the end of the Bush years could survive the new White House resident's ambitions for change. With Clinton in town highlighting common concerns, they finally received the much sought after relief.