Love-hate affair must not boil over

In three decades of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, ties between the two countries have been a combustible mix of contradiction and cooperation. It has always been a rocky love-hate relationship, full of ups and downs but ultimately underpinned by economic interests. China has learned how to handle the US' hot-and-cold political attitude while the US has learned how to press China for compromise.

But since US President Barack Obama concluded his visit to China last November, during which collaboration was placed at the top of the agenda, relations have been clouded by conflict once again. But this time the fundamental dynamics of the relationship appear to have shifted irrevocably.

China is offended by what it sees as a succession of US hostilities aimed at checking China's rising global influence.