Biden asks G-7 to take a tougher line on China, but not all allies are enthusiastic
President Joe Biden is asking leaders of other wealthy democracies to make a unified front against China’s use of forced labor, arguing Saturday that a stronger line is a moral and practical imperative.
The Group of Seven economic club also agreed on a joint alternative to heavy-handed Chinese economic expansion tactics that can leave poorer nations saddled with debt, though China’s trilliondollar infrastructure program has a vast head start.
Countering China is fast becoming a central element of Biden’s foreign policy, despite extensive trade ties and hopes for cooperation to combat climate change and other priorities.
But some of the leaders Biden is seeing for the annual G-7 session are less eager to prod Beijing over its labor practices. It appeared unlikely that Biden could persuade them to fully back his proposal to call out China for its use of forced labor, including of the Uyghur ethnic and religious minority.
A senior U.S. official who spoke with reporters following a morning session largely devoted to China described likemindedness about concerns over Chinese behavior but a difference of opinion about how to respond.
He listed Britain, Canada and France as having quickly backed Biden’s view, but it was not immediately clear where the others stood.
“There is a little differentiation, I think I would say, within – within, I think, the spectrum of how hard they would push on some of these issues,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to describe the conversation on the record.
The official predicted that a joint statement from the seven leaders would address the issue in some form. That statement is to be issued Sunday and is still in the works, the official said.
A European official familiar with the discussion said the group aired ways they could cooperate with China in some areas, such as climate change, while competing in other realms and contesting Chinese behavior where required.
Britain and Italy are co-chairs of a major international climate conference later this year and seek China’s help to meet targets.
Earlier, another U.S. official had said that Biden was “pressing his fellow leaders for concrete action on forced labor to make clear to the world that we believe these practices are an affront to human dignity and an egregious example of China’s unfair economic competition.”
“. . . [I]t’s an expression of our shared values to make clear what we won’t tolerate as the United
States and as a G-7. So we think it’s critical to call out the use of forced labor in Xinjiang and to take concrete actions to ensure that global supply chains are free from the use of forced labor,” said that official, who also addressed reporters on condition of anonymity.
“And the point is to send a wake-up call that the G-7 is serious about defending human rights and that we need to work together to eradicate forced labor from our products.”
Germany, which exports millions of cars to China annually, is among allies skeptical of a hard stance against China that could backfire. Japan, a close neighbor and trading partner of China, has also been wary. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told Biden as much when they met at the White House in April. And Italy signed a 2019 memorandum of understanding with China to join its “Belt and Road Initiative,” the sprawling infrastructure development project that the G-7 is now attempting to blunt.
The White House issued a fact sheet Saturday about what it said was a G-7 agreement to offer other nations clearer alternatives to Chinese offers of road and other infrastructure development that come with a hitch.
The “Build Back Better for the World” infrastructure development plan is “a values-driven, high-standard, and transparent infrastructure partnership led by major democracies,” the White House said. It proposes millions in partnership with private industry to offer nations in Africa, Asia and elsewhere options to say no to China’s trilliondollar Belt and Road program. The Chinese initiative is a top priority for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China is not a member of the G-7, which is meeting this year for the first time since 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Competition with China is one subtext to the threeday G-7 session here, where Biden is meeting with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. Biden, making his first foreign trip as president, will see many of the same leaders again next week for a summit of NATO nations. He ends his trip with a leader-to-leader meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Biden held a friendly meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G-7’s second day of meetings. Reporters saw the two sitting outdoors in the sunshine, the windy beach and aquamarine sea behind them.
It was their first formal meeting, although they have been getting to know one another at the summit and earlier, over the phone. Macron was elected shortly after Biden left office as vice president.
“We’re, as we say in – back in the States, ‘We’re on the same page,’ ” Biden said.