Could the US and Chinese economies really 'decouple'? | Isabella Weber

The buzzword makes it sound as if disentangling the world's two largest economies were simple

Talk of a new cold war is everywhere. Yet the economic context of the confrontation between the US and China is fundamentally different from the days of the iron curtain. The US and the Soviet Union had created competing globalisations, dividing the world into separate economic blocs. The two sides of the present divide are tied together as one Chimerica" - with China as the global workshop" and the US as the tech headquarters" of the world. The old hope that this economic interdependence would prevent political conflict has been shattered. Instead, deep economic integration has increased the stakes: the core of the world economy could fall apart.

Related: US v China: is this the start of a new cold war?