The ‘big danger’ for Australia as Trump meets Xi

May 14, 2026 — 6:11am

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Washington: The last time Donald Trump met Xi Jinping – in South Korea in October – he referred to the encounter as a “G2 meeting”. That language didn’t go unnoticed, and hasn’t been forgotten.

Some foreign policy analysts – who pay a lot more attention to words than the US president, it must be said – often ascribe to Trump a sphere-of-influence philosophy on geopolitics. By that, they mean that he sees the world as being dominated by great powers (and strong men) who have the right to control their region.

No more so than the US and China – the world’s two largest economies, and the two great geostrategic rivals of our time. Any meeting of their two leaders is therefore consequential for the world at large.

For middle powers such as Australia, a “G2” world where the important decisions are made in Washington and Beijing would be disadvantageous. Canberra benefits from a stable relationship between the US and China, but still wants a seat at the table.

Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat turned geopolitical risk consultant, wrote in the Foreign Affairs journal recently that US allies had little trust that Trump would remember or represent their interests when sitting across the table from Xi in Beijing.

He noted they were also hedging their bets by shoring up their own relations with China – hence the........

© Brisbane Times