The goal of global partnership between the United States and China, the cornerstone of my strategic vision for the past half-decade, has taken a beating lately. The Great Recession has led too many Americans to doubt in our own economic system and political institutions, while encouraging undue appreciation of China's. Similar trends can be seen on the Chinese side, with our system unduly discredited and theirs fantastically exalted. Is the world better-served by this growing Chinese hubris than it was by America's recent bout of the same vice? Hardly. Zero-sum calculations have no place in this age of globalization's rapid expansion.
But what "lithium" can we apply to this manic-depressive relationship lest it collapse into full-blown bipolar meltdown? ...