The high cost of ignorance

In its demands for China to revalue its currency, the US has turned a blind eye to changes in the Chinese economy

The campaign recently launched by some United States lawmakers to pressure China into appreciating its currency has brought a tit-for-tat war of rhetoric in Sino-US relations that has taken major steps back after US President Barack Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama and its arms sale to Taiwan.

In so doing, politicians in the White House, who have long been preoccupied with bipartisanism, have shown their sheer ignorance of growing economic interdependence between the largest developed and developing countries and the US' political responsibilities as a superpower.