Could it really spiral out of control? Increasingly militarised standoffs in the Pacific are just part of the picture as Antony Blinken becomes the highest-ranking US official to visit Beijing in five years. The trip had been pushed back at the start of the year, when a Chinese spy balloon was shot out of the sky over US territory. Are the tensions about Taiwan or trade? The answer seems to be both, if you consider that more than half of the world's semi-conductors are manufactured by Taipei and that Beijing remains the world's factory.
But even that is starting to sour. Foreign investment is slowing as US allies watch Washington employ a carrot-and-stick approach to push key industries to reshore their activity. The United States is not alone.
As the German chancellor hosts his Chinese counterpart for dinner, Olaf Scholz knows that his biggest export market is no longer flavour of the month with EU partners. Voter backlash over decades of outsourcing of jobs and industry to a country that subsidises its key sectors is now met by a "if you can't beat them, join them" approach to state subsidies, both here in Europe and the US.
Are subsidies an overdue response to help level the playing field? Or will decoupling with China fuel those spiralling tensions that Blinken wants to diffuse?
Produced by Charles Wente, Juliette Laurain and Imen Mellaz.
>> Read more: New Chinese premier’s visit to Germany, France highlights strained relations with EU
