China is running an industrial policy to get industrial and technical know-how. This is done by keeping wages down to a level the US is unlikely to compete with. This then produces surplus.

Germany is running a societal policy to transfer power from middle-class to upper-class by means of keeping wages from following productivity, while keeping its industry. This is done largely by undermining social safety nets to make the unions demand less from fear of unemployment. This also creates surpluses.

The US has been running a societal policy to transfer power from middle-class to upper-class by means of keeping wages from following productivity, while keeping up middle class consumption. This has been done largely by crushing unions while stimulating bubbles. This creates deficits.

In a technological world, industry is also power, so loosing industry is loosing power. The US has tried to keep control over industry by means of pushing ownership rights to plants and rights. This was succesfull with smaller asian nations but looks largely like a failure with China.

My point here is that in all these cases, the main driver is domestic policies. But these domestic policies creates large foreign policy consequences.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se