Do not let US-China ties spiral out of control, ex-Treasury chief Paulson warns

Former US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson has urged Washington and Beijing to manage their escalating strategic competition to prevent it spiralling into broader conflict, warning that deepening distrust now poses a greater risk than trade imbalances.The US-China relationship was “the most consequential” in the world, requiring careful stewardship as rivalry sharpened across trade, technology and security, he said. “We have to be careful that the decoupling does not become dysfunctional.”Paulson – who as treasury secretary led the US side of the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Hu Jintao – was speaking at a lunch in Beijing hosted by the China-and-globalisation" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="50057" data-entity-type="organization">Centre for China and Globalisation on Wednesday.