China Wants Great Power, Not Great Responsibility

Forty-three years after Richard Nixon made his famous visit to China, that country has seemingly decided to take a page from the former U.S. president's Treasury Department. As China lowers the value of the yuan, the country's economic policy makers are mimicking the blasé attitude of Nixon-era Treasury chief John Connally, who dismissed international complaints about U.S. monetary policy with a curt remark: "It’s our currency, but it’s your problem."

To be fair, Japan has acted with similar self-interest since late 2012, when its 35 percent devaluation began. But that raises a prickly question: What options do Asia's smaller economies have when the region's two biggest seem intent on passing their own vulnerabilities onto everyone else?