US President Barack Obama's decision to impose a 35 per cent import tariff on Chinese tyres and Beijing's angry response, claiming 'grave protectionism' and starting tit-for-tat investigations of US car parts and chicken meat for dumping and subsidies, are reminders that the relationship between the sickly superpower economy and the young pretender is dangerously fraught.
This could get out of hand. The worry is not merely that the United States and China are locking horns over a relatively small issue of tyres and chickens, but that the underlying problems remain unsolved and are growing.
For years, China and the US had a heavy romantic relationship under which the Chinese supplied everything American consumers wish for, from electronics to toys that were unimaginably clever and cheap, worth dipping into their savings.
In return, America paid China immense amounts of dollars, its global reserve currency, allowing Beijing to build up its international muscle as it became the world's biggest holder of reserves with a mighty US$1 trillion, then with US$2 trillion.
In the middle of this came the economic crash, and Beijing faced the truth of the axiom that if you owe your bank US$100, you are in trouble, but if you owe your bank US$1 million, the bank is in trouble. No one in those days would have dared to think billions, let alone trillions, or the consequences of owing or owning them.
The economic crash brought Americans face to face with economic reality that they could not go on spending beyond their means. China maybe has not realised American purses are not bottomless and that its export pot of gold has been taken away.
