Signs of a shift in economic power

You wonder whether the warning by the Chinese to the Americans ovrer their debt levels may be the shape of things to come.

The Chinese demanded that the Obama administration "guarantee the safety" of its $1 trillion in American bonds worried about the spiralling US debt.

China is now the largest holder of American treasury bonds as has enormous leverage over the US economy whilst holding them.If it sold the cost of borrowing would rocket,hardly something that the Obama administration could deal with in the middle of a financial stimulus package.

However does this episode offer a taster of a seismic shift to the Far East and maybe a shot across the bows for the West ahead of G20?