But what is the point in China joining this G2 at all?
America cannot and will not bring anything substantive to the table, so it will just boil down to America publicly asking China to do the heavy lifting to solve all of their problems globally so America can then take credit if it works, and blame it all on China if it doesn’t.
There is zero substantive benefit to China to forming such a club other than the empty ‘prestige’ of being recognised as an ‘equal’ by America.
That might be something Jai Hinds will sell the soul and first borne for, but China couldn’t care less.
US is not completely unable to offer any benefits for China. China has greater direct power, but US still has legitimacy, especially among the colonized world.
There's a lot of avenues China can explore to increase its legitimacy by siphoning it off America. Issuing dollar bonds for its own development is for example just 1 example which strengthens China at the expense of US while also relying on "keeping the enemy close".
It all depends on if Beijing thinks they want to explore this path, imho it is neither inherently bad nor good.
It only costs pride for China to publicly lower itself to US' level, if the result is increasing China's grip on the world, it is mostly justified. It's not like China is a prideful or face obsessed civilization (if it was, it wouldn't have survived and stayed powerful for so long). It's always focused on improving it's position, both civilian and military.
