Stories
America Accommodates China: A New Global Order Emerges
- •The US is making unprecedented space for China, a shift from past interactions with rising powers like Japan.
- •A bipartisan consensus in Washington supports accommodating China, driven by exhaustion with global commitments, economic interdependence, and a transactional approach to foreign policy.
- •China, however, rejects the G2 concept, viewing it as accepting an American-built world order, and is actively building an alternative global architecture.
- •India's position is unique; its interests are deeply intertwined with both the US and China, making it a crucial leverage point in a G2 world.
- •India's strategy should be to extract concessions from both powers and lead the 'vast middle' that fears both G2 dominance and G1 hegemony, positioning itself as a 'G2.5' player.
Key Questions Answered
America's shift toward accommodating China is driven by four main factors: domestic political exhaustion with open-ended global commitments, un-unwindable economic interdependence, the transactional logic of deal-making between great powers, and a quiet recognition of defense industrial limits where Washington seeks a burden-sharing partner.
Beijing rejects the concept of a G2 order because it implies accepting a world and international architecture built by America. Instead of being a co-manager, China is building the scaffolding of an alternative order through initiatives like the Belt and Road, viewing history through the lens that the East is rising and the West is declining.
India cannot choose a single side because its economic and security interests are deeply woven into both America and China. Rather than a weakness, this entanglement provides leverage: America needs India as a democratic economy of scale to absorb supply chains, while China needs India as a major market and a non-proxy neighbor, making India effectively a vital 0.5 power in a G2.5 world.
