China rejects Trump's 'G-2' framing, says world should not be run by two powers

The idea of a "G-2" — a global order shaped mainly by the United States and China — has come up again after US President Donald Trump publicly used the phrase. Speaking on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore on Saturday, Cui Tiankai, China's former ambassador to Washington, said Beijing does not accept this framing. He said the world cannot and should not be run by one or two countries alone.

Cui, who served as China's envoy to the US between 2013 and 2021, said China's preferred vision is a "community of nations with a shared future" where all countries, big or small, are treated as equal. The remarks come weeks after Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and described the US and China as the world's two most powerful nations.

The "G-2" idea, which is essentially a two-country version of multilateral groupings like the G-7 or G-20, has been discussed by Western scholars for more than a decade. Critics see it as an attempt to reduce global decision-making to a US-China bargain, which would sideline middle powers including India, the European Union, Japan and developing economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

After the latest Trump-Xi meeting, both sides described the relationship using a new phrase — "constructive strategic stability". Cui said this is not just a slogan and must be followed up with concrete actions in the same direction. He also commented on the current US-China trade dialogue, which has focused on a few sectors he called the "five Bs" — beef, the Board of Trade, the Board of Investment, Boeing aircraft, and soybeans. He suggested electric vehicles, particularly from Chinese maker BYD, could become the sixth area of discussion.

For India, the rejection of the G-2 label is significant. India's foreign policy has consistently supported a multipolar world order where decisions are not concentrated in a few capitals. New Delhi has invested in forums like BRICS, the G-20 (which India hosted in 2023), the SCO and the Quad precisely to avoid a bipolar US-China structure. A return of G-2 talk in any form would weaken India's diplomatic space.

The 100% US tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, first imposed by the Biden administration and still in force, also continues to shape the relationship. Such tariffs affect global EV supply chains and indirectly influence Indian policy choices on EV manufacturing, battery sourcing and protection of domestic carmakers.

For exam preparation, the development is useful as a current example of how major powers position themselves in global governance and how India navigates between Washington and Beijing while preserving strategic autonomy.