In the celebrated “special relationship” between Britain and the US, it is unusual for one side to rebuke the other publicly. This week a senior White House official delivered a rare, if unattributable broadside against the UK over its China policy.

The trigger was a decision by David Cameron’s government to join China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, one of a constellation of institutions that China has set up to promote international development. The US had lobbied allies in the G7 and Asia not to join the institution and Britain’s defiance is the latest sign of how the bilateral relationship is under pressure. But the spat should also prompt some hard thinking in the US about its approach to China’s rise as a global economic power.

America’s sensitivity to the creation of banks such as AIIB is understandable. Rivalry between Washington and Beijing for global economic influence is intensifying. Since the end of the second world war, the US has been the dominant voice, partly thanks to the creation of the Washington-based World Bank and International Monetary Fund. China is now challenging the Bretton Woods set-up by creating financial bodies to help it gain greater political influence in the Asia-Pacific region and other parts of the world.