Watching Chinese officials turn the tables on the United States, I can't help but wonder if they've been reading Stephen Roach's new book.

Roach is an economist who made his name at Morgan Stanley. But in "Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China," he dons a psychologist's hat to warn about how the "marriage of convenience" between the two biggest economies is going awry in ways that could send bad vibes from Jakarta to Johannesburg. The impending breakup will not be pretty — especially for the U.S.

"This relationship obviously brings important benefits, but there are serious risks," Roach argues. "Psychologists warn that co-dependency ultimately leads to identity crisis, denial of responsibility, and the tendency to blame others for problems. China and the United States manifest most aspects of that mutual pathology."