COMMENT "Only connect" seems to be the favoured theme for US foreign policy hands, the connection in this instance being one with China. After all, no one wants another bipolar world, dominated, this time, by the US and China. What is more, North Korea's nuclear threat seems to be growing and Pyongyang listens only to Beijing. The State Department and even Pentagon types offer endless therapeutic talk about "locking China in", offering a friendly hand to China and so on. This week Richard Haass, former director of policy planning at the State Department, published The Opportunity, a book arguing that the US must choose between making China a partner or earning "the permanent enmity of 1.3bn Chinese".
There is irony here. While State and Defence speak soothingly about links, the Treasury is hacking away at the single most important link between the two countries - the monetary link.
