CNN
As leaders of seven of the world’s most powerful democracies gather in Japan on Friday, it will be the authoritarian powers of China and Russia that dominate the agenda.
The annual Group of Seven (G7) summit, convening this year in Hiroshima, will seek to project a unified response to an increasingly assertive China – and the perceived threat it poses to the stability and economic security of a world already shaken by Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine.
While much of the attention will be focused on Ukraine – including how to further tighten the screws on Russia and defuse rising nuclear tensions – the three-day summit also provides an opportunity for G7 leaders to recalibrate and coordinate their approach toward China, which has refused to condemn the invasion and instead bolstered ties with Moscow.
“Basically this is going to be a meeting for them to talk about how to deal with China and Russia,” said Yasuhiro Matsuda, an international relations professor at the University of Tokyo.
But agreeing on a common approach to the world’s second largest economy will not be an easy task.
China, a global manufacturing hub and a huge consumer market, is an important trade partner to the G7 countries, which is comprised of the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Italy.
“It is difficult to have one single position on China across seven countries considering their different concerns and relationships with Beijing,” said Sun Yun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank.
“But to the extent that a position with the largest common denominator can be developed, the G7 offers a great opportunity.”
Security in Asia
Projecting unity on China comes at a crucial moment for the US and its allies, as Beijing ramps up diplomatic efforts to repair ties with Europe and drive a wedge in the transatlantic alliance.
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron caused consternation in Western capitals after he said, following a warm visit to Beijing, that Europe must not become “just America’s followers” and get “caught up in crises that are not ours” when asked about the prospect of China invading Taiwan.
Days later, in an effort to present a united front on Taiwan, the G7 foreign ministers said in a preparatory meeting for the summit that there was “no change” in the bloc’s position on the self-ruled democratic island.
The top diplomats called on China to “abstain from threats, coercion, intimidation, or the use of force” and “reaffirmed” the importance of “peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait as an “indispensable element in security and prosperity in the international community.”
Japan, the host of this year’s G7 summit and its only Asian member, will position regional security on the summit’s main agenda, said Matsuda at the University of Tokyo.
Deeply concerned about Beijing’s military posturing in the region, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has warned publicly that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow.”
In response to growing threats from China, Japan has moved to double its military spending and is in talks to open a NATO liaison office – the first of its kind in Asia and a sign of deepening ties between Western and Asian democracies.
In a move that highlighted Tokyo’s concerns, China sent a naval flotilla – led by one of its most powerful destroyers – on a 12-day circumnavigation of Japan’s main islands in a display of military power in the lead-up to the G7 summit.
‘Economic coercion’
Another important theme of the summit will be economic security, including how to counter China’s economic pressure tactics.
At a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Japan last week, US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen called for “coordinated action” by G7 nations against Beijing’s use of “economic coercion.”
The tough rhetoric was echoed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen this week before she departed for Hiroshima.
“We’ve seen attempts of economic coercion, for example China towards Lithuania; we’ve seen similar practices vis-a-vis Japan and Australia,” von der Leyen said in Brussels Monday, citing Beijing’s recent punishment of the Baltic state for opening a new trade office with Taiwan.
“We are most vulnerable to coercion in general where dependencies built up,” she said, calling for the “de-risking, not decoupling” of economic relationship with China.
The summit will seek to diversify supply chains and reduce heavy reliance on China.
