CHINA US Focus - Perspectives shaping the world's most important bilateral relationship

Patriotism, it has been said, is the last refuge of scoundrels. Indeed, with 86% of the American public disapproving of Congress' performance, refuge-seeking politicians have wrapped themselves in the flag to denounce the fact that the U.S. Olympic team's uniforms were manufactured in China.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said he was "so upset ... they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again." House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, clucked of the Olympic committee at a news conference that "You'd think they'd know better.