A central fact of our times is that China (a superpower trying to get its act together) and America (a superpower trying to keep it together) are linked by emotional and historical angst, substantive contemporary tension, and mutual economic and strategic needs. Which is to say: sometimes it seems as if China-US relations are absolutely in a yo-yo state, endless up and down pistons – and nobody knows where and when the yo-yo will stop. Forget what the president of China or the United States think of the relationship, what do we (you and I) think? What should we think? What is our moral obligation to think, even if we’re not so-called “leaders”?