Biden slams China’s ‘economic coercion’
But US president says the G7 bloc plans to ‘de-risk’ rather than decouple
Seven of the world’s wealthiest nations aim to diversify supply chains away from China and protect critical advanced technologies but are not about to decouple from the world’s second-biggest economy, US President Joe Biden said yesterday.
Speaking at the end of the Group of Seven summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, Biden said the G7 had a united position on China’s “economic coercion” – an accusation that Beijing denies.
“We’re not looking to decouple from China. We’re looking to de-risk and diversify our relationship with China,” Biden said.
“That means taking steps to diversify our supply chains and so we’re not dependent on any one country for necessary products.
“It means resisting economic coercion.
“Together, countering harmful practices that hurt our workers means protecting a narrow set of advanced technologies critical for our national security. And those elements are all agreed on by the G7.”
China hit back at Biden’s claims, accusing the United States of unfair practices. “The United States has engaged in unilateral sanctions, ‘supply chain decoupling’, and weaponisation of economic and trade issues,” the Chinese embassy in Britain said, adding: “It is the real coercion.”
The claims and counterclaims are the latest volleys in the China-US trade war that began in 2018 and led to tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs imposed on exports.
The tensions have affected a wide range of sectors, particularly technology, with the US announcing a high-end chip ban in October and pressuring its allies to follow suit.
There were hopes the relationship would improve after Biden met President Xi Jinping in Bali last November but those efforts were undercut by the “spy balloon” saga in February.
Yesterday, Biden revived the possibility of an improvement in ties, saying he expected a thaw in the frosty relations with China “shortly”.
US officials have also discussed meeting their Chinese counterparts, and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is expected to visit the US to attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting this week.
Biden also made it clear that Washington would maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, underlining the US commitment to the one-China policy while continuing “to put Taiwan in a position that they can defend themselves”.
“Neither [mainland China nor Taiwan] territory can independently declare what they’re going to do, period,” he said.
“We made it clear that we don’t expect Taiwan to independently declare independence either.
“And there is clear understanding among most of our allies that in fact, if China were to act unilaterally, there would be a response.”
He also addressed the need to maintain stability in the South China Sea, a disputed waterway through which trillions of dollars in ship-borne commerce passes each year.
Biden’s message on China was echoed by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said China represented the world’s greatest challenge to security and prosperity, but that other leading economies should not seek to fully decouple from it.
“With the G7, we are taking steps to prevent China from using economic coercion to interfere in the sovereign affairs of others,” Sunak said.
Still, at least one G7 leader sought to strike a more amiable tone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said bloc members would ensure big investments in China continued even as they pared risky exposure to the economic powerhouse.
Speaking to German broadcaster ZDF on the sidelines of the Hiroshima summit, Scholz said that existing supply chains and exports to China would also continue.
He added that while the countries in the bloc wanted to limit their risk exposure, no one had an interest in curbing growth in China.
US President Joe Biden yesterday announced a new US$375 million package of military aid to Ukraine and told President Volodymyr Zelensky that America was doing all it could to strengthen Ukraine’s defence for the war with Russia.
Meeting with the Ukrainian leader on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit of world leaders in Hiroshima, Japan, Biden said the military aid package included ammunition, artillery, armoured vehicles and training.
“Together with the entire G7, we have Ukraine’s back and I promise we’re not going anywhere,” Biden told Zelensky.
In the meeting, Biden stressed his country’s readiness to help build Ukraine’s long-term capacity to defend against and deter Russian aggression, the White House said.
To that end, Biden discussed US support for a joint effort with allied and partner nations to train Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation fighter aircraft such as the F-16, it said. But Biden said Zelensky had given Washington a “flat assurance” that F-16 fighters would not be used to attack Russian territory.
“I have a flat assurance from Zelensky that they will not use it to go on and move onto Russian geographic territory, but wherever Russian troops are within Ukraine and the area, they would be able to do that,” Biden told reporters.
Biden also said that Russia “will not break” the resolve of Ukraine’s allies.
Biden said he had assured his Ukrainian counterpart that Washington and other backers of Kyiv “will not waver, Putin will not break our resolve as he thought he could”.
Zelensky’s surprise trip to Japan has been a major diplomatic coup, putting his country and Russia’s 15-month-long invasion firmly at the top of the agenda.
Zelensky’s invitation to visit Hiroshima, a city synonymous with the horrors of nuclear war, was a “deeply meaningful” symbol of support, according to host Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister.
“By inviting President Zelensky to Japan, we demonstrated the unwavering solidarity of G7 with Ukraine,” he said.
Following the end of the G7 summit in Japan, Zelensky paid a visit to the Peace Museum in Hiroshima, where a memorial stands to commemorate the hundreds of thousands who died in the atomic bombing of 1945.
As well as securing backing from allies, the visit afforded Zelensky a rare opportunity to win over a handful of nations who have pointedly offered little or no condemnation of Russia’s invasion.
Leaders from India, Brazil, Vietnam and Indonesia were among those invited to attend the summit as non-members.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused the West of “encouraging the war” and is yet to confirm he will even meet his Ukrainian counterpart.
The reception was warmer however from India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who told Zelensky: “I understand your pain and the pain of Ukrainian citizens very well. I can assure you that to resolve this India and, me personally, will do whatever we can do.”
Zelensky offered an upbeat assessment of the encounter, saying he believed India “will participate in the restoration of the rules-based international order that all free nations clearly need”.
Zelensky was also looking for support for a 10-point peace plan, centred on the demand that Russia retreat from Ukrainian territory.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the message from Ukraine and its allies was clear: “Russia must withdraw troops.”
Any peace plan, he said, “can’t simply be linked to a freeze of the conflict”. “Russia should not bet that if it holds out long enough, it will end up weakening support for Ukraine,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped President Zelensky’s attendance at the gathering would help countries like Brazil and India better understand Ukraine’s situation.
He referred to a coming meeting of the BRICS countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“This is very important for us because it prevents a division of the world – between those who clearly support Ukraine and those who say they support peace, sometimes without knowing what exactly that means,” Macron said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said Russian forces were not occupying Bakhmut, casting doubt on Moscow’s insistence that the eastern city had fallen.
Responding to a reporter’s question about the status of the city at the Group of Seven summit in Japan, Zelensky said: “Bakhmut is not occupied by the Russian Federation as of today.”
“We are not throwing people [away] to die,” Zelensky said in Ukrainian through an interpreter. “People are the treasure. I clearly understand what is happening in Bakhmut. I cannot share with you the technical details of what is happening with our warriors.”
The fog of war made it impossible to confirm the situation on the ground in the invasion’s longest battle, and a series of comments from Ukrainian and Russian officials added confusion to the matter.
Zelensky’s response in English to a question earlier at the summit about the status of Bakhmut suggested that he believed the city had fallen to Russian forces, and he offered solemn words about its fate.
When asked if the city was in Ukraine’s hands, Zelensky said: “I think no, but you have to understand that there is nothing. They’ve destroyed everything. There are no buildings. It’s a pity. It’s tragedy.
“But, for today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing on this place, so – just ground and a lot of dead Russians.”
Zelensky’s press secretary later walked back those comments.
Ukrainian defence and military officials said that fierce fighting was ongoing. Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar even went so far as to say that Ukrainian troops “took the city in a semi-encirclement”.
“The enemy failed to surround Bakhmut, and they lost part of the dominant heights around the city,” Malyar said.
“That is, the advance of our troops in the suburbs along the flanks, which is still ongoing, greatly complicates the enemy’s presence in Bakhmut.”
And the spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, Serhii Cherevaty, said the Ukrainian military was managing to hold positions in the vicinity of Bakhmut.
“The president correctly said that the city has, in fact, been razed to the ground. The enemy is being destroyed every day by massive artillery and aviation strikes, and our units report that the situation is extremely difficult,” he said.
“Our military keep fortifications and several premises in the southwestern part of the city. Heavy fighting is under way.”
It was only the latest flipflopping of the situation in Bakhmut after eight months of intense fighting.
Only hours earlier, Russian state new agencies reported that President Vladimir Putin had congratulated “Wagner assault detachments, as well as all servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces units, who provided them with the necessary support and flank protection, on the completion of the operation to liberate Artyomovsk,” which is Bakhmut’s Soviet-era name.
Russia’s Defence Ministry also said Wagner and military units “completed the liberation” of Bakhmut.
Many analysts have said that even if Russia was victorious in Bakhmut, it was unlikely to turn the tide in the war.
The Russian capture of the last remaining ground in the city was “not tactically or operationally significant,” a Washington-based think tank said.
The Institute for the Study of War said taking control of these areas “does not grant Russian forces operationally significant terrain to continue conducting offensive operations,” nor to “defend against possible Ukrainian counter-attacks”.
After Russia switched its focus to the Donbas following a botched attempt to seize Kyiv early in the February 2022 invasion, Moscow’s troops tried to take Bakhmut in August but were pushed back.
The fighting there abated in autumn as Russia was confronted with Ukrainian counteroffensives in the east and the south, but it resumed at full pace late last year.