Even as the Obama administration works overtime to wind down two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, it could well be on the brink of opening up a new battle front — an economic slugfest with China.

This week the U.S. Commerce Department announced, after months of hand-wringing and suspense, that it would be imposing tariffs on solar panels made in China, after investigations supposedly revealed that Chinese manufacturers were receiving significant amounts of ‘ illegal' subsidies for the clean-tech product.