G7 to prepare a unified response to China’s ‘economic pressure’

G7 leaders are set to unveil measures to respond to Chinese economic pressure as the US, Japan and other members of the grouping step up efforts to adopt a unified approach to Beijing.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the leaders of the G7 countries – the US, Britain, Japan, Canada, Germany, France and Italy – will issue a statement on China on Saturday and discuss the measures the country is using to push back against economic pressure. Will outline the tools to be used. ,

“G7 leaders will outline a common set of tools to address the concerns of each of our countries,” Sullivan said at the G7 in Hiroshima, Japan.

Sullivan said the tools to boost economic security would include steps to make supply chains more resilient, outbound investment measures and export controls to protect sensitive technology. The US and its allies are growing increasingly concerned about China’s ability to secure foreign technology to help its military.

The measures are being issued at the same time that Washington and Beijing work to hold a series of high-level meetings to follow an agreement between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping last year to rebuild ties between the two superpowers. are doing. is at its worst in decades.

Sullivan dismissed suggestions that the G7 statement on China could affect the effort to restart ties, saying the language was “not hostile” and that the US and its allies wanted to work with China .

“This is not a cartoon issue of one-dimensional policy. This is a multi-pronged complex policy for a really complex relationship with an important country, Sullivan said.

UK officials said G7 leaders would announce a platform that would provide a platform to identify economic vulnerabilities and coordinate protective measures.

“The forum will address the growing and harmful use of coercive economic measures to interfere in the sovereign affairs of other states,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said ahead of a discussion on economic security on Saturday.

“Let us be clear about the growing challenge before us. China is engaged in a concerted and strategic economic competition.

US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said China is using debt trap diplomacy and “crude exercises of power” to undermine countries’ political and economic stability.

In recent months, China has imposed sanctions on US defense companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon and launched a national security investigation into US chipmaker Micron. It has also raided US due diligence firm Mintz & Bain, a consultancy, and detained an executive from Japan’s Astellas Pharma group.

The G7 will issue its final communiqué on Saturday, a day ahead of schedule as leaders are expected to focus on Ukraine on Sunday. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, will travel to Asia for the first time since Russia invaded his country to attend the summit in person.

The coordination on China follows two years of efforts by the Biden administration, helped by Japan, to foster unity among G7 members on challenges presented by Beijing. European officials said that maintaining coordinated action was more powerful than unilateral measures by individual countries.

China on Friday responded to US claims about economic coercion, saying the US and its allies are “using their great power position”. , , and economic pressure to enforce compliance and engage in coercive diplomacy”.

Additional reporting by Joe Leahy in Beijing and Alice Hancock in Brussels