Now that Bannon is gone, the Trump administration officials pushing for that realignment have lost their champion. “You had a guy at the chief-of-staff level leading that charge. Losing him creates a huge imbalance now,” one White House official said.

Bannon had some successes on China, but they might not endure. Earlier this month, Trump ordered a review of China’s intellectual property theft. The future of that effort is now in the hands of U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer.

Bannon pushed China hawks for positions throughout the federal bureaucracy but did not last long enough to oust Susan A. Thornton, the acting assistant secretary of state for Asia, as he wished.