Xi wants half the world

After a decade, Xi floats 'G2' world with U.S. again

"Planet Earth is big enough" to accommodate both China and the U.S., Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.
 
Xi used similar wording in a proposal he made to then-U.S. President Barack Obama in 2013, when he said, "The vast Pacific Ocean has enough space for the two large countries."
 
Obama briefly contemplated Xi's call to establish "a new type of great power relationship," but he eventually turned down the offer because it was, in effect, creating a "Group of Two" world in which the U.S. and China decide the most important things.
 
After a 10-year hiatus, the G2 proposal has resurfaced -- this time replacing the "vast Pacific" with "Planet Earth." The scale has expanded.
 
Good or bad aside, Xi's fundamental thinking has not changed. This is unsurprising considering that the core lineup of his foreign and security advisers is made up of the same people.
 
But if the only concern for the great powers was not to infringe on each other's interests, this is equivalent of divvying up the world -- the very concept Obama rejected.