The casual, nonchalant and, for some at least, apparently satisfying deployment of the term "decoupling" to describe the current trajectory of the U.S.-China relationship reminds us of the classical wisdom that in foreign policy, words are bullets.
Indeed, decoupling has become the term of the moment for U.S.-China relations, reflecting for some the unfolding reality of the relationship; for others, its desired destination. This is despite neither the U.S. nor the Chinese governments deploying the d-word as part of their official vocabulary.
