The advent of a G2 world
President Trump may be recognized by future historians as the American president who persuaded the U.S. to pragmatically accept the return of China as a great power. He has even acknowledged that China’s peaceful rise has been a remarkable development. He told former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, “Isn’t it incredible, they’ve become so powerful without firing a shot.” Trump has also realistically acknowledged that we live in a G2 world.
The challenge for Trump is that the Washington establishment refuses to accept China as a peer. Both Republicans and Democrats agree that China must be stopped. The real fight on China policy won’t be between Presidents Trump and Xi. It will be between Trump and the D.C. establishment. If he can restrain this hawkish establishment and sustain his pragmatic engagement with China over the next two and a half years, Trump will be remembered for the creation of a new G2 world, just as Nixon will always be remembered for his visit to China.
Kishore Mahbubani is a former Singaporean ambassador and former United Nations Security Council president. He is a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore and is the author of “Has China Won? The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy.”
Source: NOTUS: What will be the main long-term impact of the Trump-Xi summit?