Mutually beneficial relationship between the United States and China: Why did it end?

From the 1990s to 2013, the United States and China formed a mutually beneficial relationship: the United States had a significant trade deficit with China, which China financed by buying US Treasuries. This allowed the United States to consume more, thanks to its external deficit financed at a low cost by China, and China to produce more by selling to the United States. Why did this economically efficient and mutually advantageous relationship end in 2014? Because it gradually led the production of sophisticated and strategic goods and services to be offshored to China (electronics, telecoms, online services), and this trend threatened the United States’ technological leadership. The United States severed this relationship to preserve its leadership, which has come at an economic cost, since the previous arrangement was efficient for both countries: a shift has taken place from a logic of economic efficiency to one of preserving a dominant position .