Trade dispute an inflammation as relations are recalibrated

AS THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA lock horns in trade frictions, some worry that if the situation escalates into a self-destructive spiral, the world's two largest economies will have no choice but to sever all their trade ties. China Daily reporter Li Yang comments:

To completely decouple, as some hawks on the US side have proposed, would indeed be the worst-case scenario. But that is unlikely to happen as undoing the connections between the Chinese and US economies could ignite a US debt crisis - over the past five years, the nominal growth of its gross domestic product was 4.3 percent, and its debt rose 4.7 percent.

To reduce its trade deficits is only a pretense providing Washington with a convenient excuse to press Beijing to swallow a basket of radical reforms in line with US interests. The US administration's strategic objective is to tame its foremost challenger, whose unique development path and political system make its rise a thorn in the US' side.