Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, the two Presidents of the two most powerful economies, are autocrats. They might seem different to some people, but they are the same. Trump wants to make America Great Again (MAGA), and Xi wants China. The main thing is that only one can succeed; both can't, if both can't succeed, then there's no G2. It's only G1. 

G2 Concept 

The G2 concept — where the US and China jointly take responsibility for solving global issues— was floated around the time of the Obama administration in the late 2010s when the US found that the Chinese economy was rising and felt it was time that China would be a pure competitor. It's only a matter of time. Their economy was booming in those days, and Obama felt that China should take its due share of global responsibility and global governance along with the USA, and hoped that as part of this G2, China would democratize and become more benign, but that didn't happen.

President Xi and Trump's privileged backgrounds

Neither Trump nor Xi have risen through the ranks. Both of the presidents have privileged backgrounds. Trump's father was a millionaire and very rich, and he's had that background, and Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun was one of Mao Zedong’s aides and played a pivotal role in the Chinese Communist Revolution. That makes Xi Jinping a Princeling. Another interesting fact, both Xi and Trump are at war with the governing class beneath them. What's happening in America today, the deep state has to be destroyed as far as Trump is concerned and Trump is destroying his own structures, what is Xi Jinping doing is carrying out a massive purge the kind even Mao didn't carry out in China. Xi has done this in the last 10 years. So both want to purge their own systems. There’s a democratic purge that's a communist purge that's the only difference. Then, interestingly, what David Ignatius says in his Washington Post article is that a world governed by these two autocrats is bad news, and it is bad news for all of us. They're not doing it well, and we are stuck with them. We can't run away from both of these countries for some time. But it's better to have them talking than fighting.

US and China losing influence?

Trump's allies are not confident of him; whether it's Japan , South Africa, South Korea, or Taiwan, they don't know whether the USA will be there when these countries need them. One can see the rifts in NATO and see the way things are going with the Ukraine war. In the same way, China is in the same boat with its BRI (Belt and Road Initiative)  and its trust deficit. What's happened to Pakistan, the flip Pakistan did with China, and ran towards the US for US arms. What's happening in the Middle East? No one wants China. They say, "Okay, we'll take oil, we'll do all that. We are still in BRI, but there's no influence. They both can't influence events. Neither of these countries has been able to influence.

The Chinese are having problems in their own backyard in the South China Sea; they're not able to close out whatever they started with, even the Philippines. Both countries have internal political problems, huge polarization. And military problems. Even Trump is carrying out some kind of purge. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a talk to all the admirals and said “Get going” is a fact. Xi Jinping has been in power for over 12 years; his numbers are more, but what's happening in the US military is the same then the very interesting thing which is coming out today, the rest of the world is seeking to reduce dependency on both these countries.

Economic Blocks and countries forming alliances with each other

When one reads the Chinese or the US or anyone, the economic blocks in this world, if the first and second economic blocs are the US, China, undoubtedly the third economic block EU. The fourth economic block is something like Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and one other economic block. The fifth economic block is India, on its own. And the sixth economic block is the Middle East, West Asia, the oil shakedowns. And the next economic bloc is the global south. These are the broad economic uh you know blocks. whether it is Japan, Korea or Taiwan or Australia, or the Middle East, or, for that matter, Europe or India. We're all trying to see how to get out of the grip of the USA and China. We can't live without them. But can we? So one has to reduce dependencies. So all the other blocks, EU, West Asia, India, I'll call it East Asia, and the global south, they're seeking partnerships with each other. Even for that matter, the Latin American big boys, Argentina and Brazil, they're all looking at how to form better connections between them, which was not there earlier. In fact, far from a G2, this very factor that the world is seeking to reduce dependency diffuses G2. G2 is far away.

Conclusion: Power without responsibility

The US and China want influence, but do they want the responsibility for the influence? Both want influence, but they don't want responsibility. The countries that want to influence the world should be able to take responsibility.  As the quote from the movie Spider-Man says, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Watch the full podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F52T4hbTQ5g&t=910s

Lt Gen. P.R. Shankar (Retd.)

Lt Gen PR Shankar retired as the Director General of the Artillery in the Indian Army. He is presently a Professor in the Aerospace Dept of IIT Madras. He is a Distinguished Fellow of CLAWS and a member of  Chennai Centre of China Studies. He has also been a Director of the L&T Def I/c Board when it existed. He has his own YouTube Channel - Gunners Shot. He takes keen interest in Defence, Technology, National, Strategic and China affairs. He is also involved in applied research on cutting edge technologies.