G-7 is eliminating demand about China, but the need for answers is growing

Photographer: Go Nakamura / Getty Images

Leaders of the group of seven industrialized countries walked on their toes around the issue of China at their first virtual meeting in 2021 and failed to disguise the growing sense that it is a problem they will soon have to address.

Joe Biden’s debut on the world stage as US president showed further efforts to mend the transatlantic relationship and highlighted growing unease over Beijing’s behavior. The leaders of the European Union did not always share those concerns of the US during Donald Trump’s four years in the White House.

The leaders discussed China at length during the call, according to an EU official who was aware of the conversation, but the mention of the topic in the statement that followed offered little detail. Members pledged to “engage in talks” with Beijing and, without mentioning any country in particular, “to consult” to address “non-market policies and practices”.

The G-7 communique instead drew attention to a pledge to support government spending to help economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic, a pledge to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050, and their clear relief from the return of multilateralism after the Trump era.

Read more: Xi warns of another Cold War as Biden team assesses strategy

The rise of China and the increasingly authoritarian stance of President Xi Jinping’s government is the defining challenge for industrialized, democratic nations that have seen no challenge to their hegemony since the decline of the Soviet Union a generation ago.

In speeches following the G-7 phone call, the leaders laid down their discussions firmly, and here there was a sign that they could potentially forge a common response in the coming months.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s comments were stronger than often the case, as she emphasized what she saw as Beijing’s efforts to exploit the pandemic.

“China has taken a global hit in recent years,” Merkel, who will step down after 16 years later this year, told the Munich Security Conference. “As a transatlantic union and as democracies of this world, we will have to fight that with concrete actions.”

The dilemma for Merkel and the rest of the G-7 is that China has become a major trading partner and manufacturer of some of the key technologies they depend on to support their growth. With their economies struggling to recover from the Covid-19 lockdowns, their influence is limited.

Merkel’s stronger tone may be in part because she sees in Biden a partner who is more reliable and consistent than Trump, and one with whom she can build a common approach. It was an open secret in Berlin that Merkel had given up on working with Biden’s predecessor.

Biden advocates democracy over autocracy and rejects Trump

The new president’s own rhetoric indicated that US policy toward China will be little softened.