Why Asia should worry about a G-1 world as China’s power grows

Mr Donald Trump’s

frequent references to a Group of Two (G-2)

ahead of his summit meeting in October with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping – one that involves just the US and China – has triggered angst in Asian middle powers, amid a time of declining US influence. Several other Asian states that have their own views of the world, and their place in it, are uneasy as well. 

Professor Tomohiko Taniguchi, the eminence grise of Japan’s Conservative movement and the former foreign policy adviser to the Shinzo Abe Cabinet, describes a potential “G-2” world order as

a “nightmarish” scenario

. Tokyo, he told me, “does not want to have (that happen) at any cost because under those circumstances, it would mean that Japan would become an integral part within the Chinese sphere of influence”. Indian officials are similarly alarmed.