The issues of freedom, however, bring the Hollywood left and the religious right in America together. But they can at best irritate China and do not have the power to undermine the current stability of the Sino-American relationship.

On national security, McCain adopts a sharper tone, demanding that China not be included in a future expansion of the G-8 club of industrialised countries. While McCain might recognise the need to balance the rise of China, Obama prefers the integration of China into the international system to building countervailing alliances.

The writer is a professor at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohan@ntu.edu.sg