In Asian media this week: Trump hints at changing great-power relationship. Plus: Beijing wresting control of the global narrative; Myanmar’s scam centre raids dismissed as a smokescreen; Prabowo considers declaring Soeharto a national hero; US approves South Korean nuclear-powered submarine; China’s modern women need new men.

A repost from 8 November 2025

Donald Trump has resurrected the concept of a group of two, a G2 — the US and China — with Asian media exploring its meaning: moving from containment to greater collaboration or two spheres of influence?

Trump used the concept before and after his recent summit with Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea. “THE G2 WILL BE CONVENING SHORTLY!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. After the meeting, he said: “My G2 meeting with President Xi of China was a great one for both of our countries. This meeting will lead to everlasting peace and success.”

Nikkei Asia, the online politics and business magazine, noted in an analysis that the Trump administration had yet to release its China strategy, its Indo-Pacific strategy or its National Defence Strategy. “The president’s repeated use of ‘G2’ hints at his vision of the relationship: one in which the two major powers collaborate rather than clash,” it said.

But the article also recalled Xi had spoken in the past of the need for a new model of the major-country relationship. The statement conjured up images of the two powers dividing the Pacific into two spheres of influence. Analysts noted that Trump was moving closer to Xi’s view.

The idea of a G2 as an economic relationship was developed by economist Fred Bergsten some 20 years ago and embraced by former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. But it has fallen out of use, replaced by a strategy of great power competition.

Zhao Minghao, an American studies specialist at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said in a South China Morning Post op-ed Trump’s use of the term G2 should not be overstated. “But it is important to recognise that the US president values great power co-ordination,” Zhao wrote.

Commentator Wang Xiangwei said the Xi-Trump summit delivered little by way of concrete breakthroughs. “Yet it may have quietly opened the door to a new modus vivendi: a Group of Two world in which China and the US co-ordinate on some global problems while continuing to compete, even fiercely, on others,” Wang wrote in an analysis published by Singapore’s CNA (channelnewsasia.com).

Wang, a former SCMP chief editor, said America's economic containment of China had failed. “It is in this context that Mr Trump’s G2 rhetoric should be read,” he wrote.

An op-ed in The Indian Express, by author Sanjaya Baru, said that by using the term G2, Trump had declared a power shift that had been long in the making.

Traditionally, India had worked to “engage” America, “manage” China, “cultivate” Europe and “reassure” Russia. Now, thanks to Trump, India would have to engage China and manage America, while still reassuring Russia.

Trump leaves APEC early but Xi stays and presses his case

Donald Trump went to the APEC meeting in South Korea last week, met Xi Jinping and some other leaders, made a speech at the CEO summit and went back to Washington. He did not attend the leaders’ summit. Xi stayed.

Beijing capitalised on Trump’s early departure, Nikkei Asia said. He presented China as the superpower more committed to multilateral engagement.

China, it suggested in a headline, is

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