US President Donald Trump may have disclosed his stance on the US-China relationship in a brief Truth Social post. This may have pleased Beijing, which is concerned about its reputation, but it may have alarmed US allies who are worried about China’s growing influence in the world.
“The G2 WILL BE CONVENING SHORTLY!” Trump posted on Truth Social just before heading to a highly anticipated summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea, bringing back a phrase from the early 2000s that Washington has rejected for at least 10 years, including during Trump’s first term.
American economist C. Fred Bergsten first proposed the Group of Two, or G2, in 2005 to advocate for what he saw as the need for communication between the two largest economies. It now suggests a balance of power between the two countries, something Beijing has long desired as it has grown from a regional superpower to a major player in the world.
However, allies of the US and partners are concerned about that balance and China’s potential approach to it.
“The G2 concept implies that China and the United States are peers on the global stage and their positions should be given equal weight,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
At a time when observers and analysts, including those advising Beijing, are trying to understand Trump administration’s China policy which has yet to solidify in the face of a more assertive Chinese government, the US president has used the once-discarded term.
China resisted Western attempts to “contain” it from the early 1900s, long before its communist regime came to power. Following World War II, the term “containment policy” became widely used to refer to a tactic that the Chinese government believed was an institutionalised means of maintaining its position of powerlessness.
Upending this cornerstone of the global order was a major goal of Chinese diplomacy in the early 2000s. China’s much-heralded “Belt and Road” initiative is still intended to expand Chinese influence and, in part, counteract containment.
“This meeting will lead to everlasting peace and success,” Trump wrote in a post over the weekend, describing his “G2 meeting with President Xi of China” as a terrific one for both nations.
“God bless both China and the USA!” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on X after his conversation with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun.
Trump’s use of the term is likely to have “provoked significant anxiety in allied capitals, where allies fear that the Trump administration will cut deals with China that may leave them at a disadvantage,” former Biden administration official Mira Rapp-Hooper said.
Meanwhile, Bergsten, who claimed he never intended for the G2 to replace other multilateral groups or international organisations, like the G7 or G20, but rather to figure out “the necessary cooperation between the two big superpowers,” is pleased with the term’s recent rise.
Xi met Trump for a bilateral meeting at Gimhae Air Base in Busan during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.
In his 12-year rule as the leader of China and the most powerful Communist leader, Xi has established a reputation as a steady and serious hand, which has been bolstered by state media. He is not the one who smiles. However, White House-released photos reveal a different side of the Chinese president that is not visible photographs published in the nation.
Everyone was watching to see how the leaders of the two largest economies in the world would resolve their differences on everything from rare earth minerals and expensive computer chips to fentanyl and soybeans.
Aside from the tough diplomacy, however, White House-released photos showed a rare candid moment between the two leaders.
In one picture, Trump was seen extending his arm across the negotiating table to present Xi with a piece of paper in a room full of suited diplomats. Whatever was written or printed on the paper remains unknown.
In another picture, Foreign Minister Wang Yi is seen laughing beside the Chinese leader, who looks to be grinning with his eyes closed. It’s unclear if the pictures were put in chronological sequence.
These spontaneous moments stand in stark contrast to his meticulously crafted image at home, where he was spotted in September leading a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II while wearing a Mao suit, a garment connected to the founder of Communist China, Mao Zedong.