A rising Asian power has emerged as an export powerhouse and enjoys rapid, export-led growth fuelled by extraordinarily high savings and investment rates. Its technological capacity is upgraded at prodigious rates and its businesses threaten an ever greater swathe of industry in Europe and the US. Its high level of central bank reserves and burgeoning current account surplus lead to claims that its exchange rate is being unfairly manipulated or, at a minimum, should be guided upwards. Its financial system is bank-centric, heavily regulated in ways that favour domestic institutions and has close ties to government and industry. Rapid productivity growth holds down product prices but asset price inflation is rampant.

US congressional leaders demand radical action to contain the economic threat. Delegations of senior US economic officials engage in “dialogue” with their counterparts about the many aspects of the country’s economic policies that promote imbalances, warning of the congressional demons who stand ready to act if “results” are not achieved quickly.