(CN) --- After three days of talks and simmering disagreements at an English sea resort, the Group of Seven rich nations agreed to back a wide-ranging, though not clearly defined, American strategy to counter the rise of China.
On Sunday, the G-7 nations issued a 25-page communiqué that outlined their common goals and pledges on everything from ending the pandemic by delivering 1 billion vaccine doses to poorer nations to transforming the global economy through massive investments designed to protect biodiversity, bridge gender gaps and ramp up renewable energy production.
The central thrust of the communiqué, though couched in soft and at times oblique language against China, was the fruit of an effort by U.S. President Joe Biden to build consensus among other G-7 nations to criticize China's human rights record and present it as the quintessential threat to democracy.
During a weeklong trip in Europe, Biden is rallying European allies after four turbulent years with former President Donald Trump in the White House. Trump repeatedly challenged and provoked European leaders. Biden, a true Atlanticist, is hoping to win more support for his plans against China and Russia when he attends a NATO summit on Monday and a European Union meeting on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.
After the weekend G-7 meeting in Cornwall, Biden came away largely successful at winning over reluctant European leaders who are wary of provoking China and whose nations depend mightily on trade with Beijing. The G-7 is made up of the U.S., Germany, France, the U.K., Canada, Italy and Japan.
Getting Italy, Germany, France and Japan to sign onto a document confronting China presents these countries with serious risks and signals that the rift between the West and China may be hardening. Some experts see the rivalry between the U.S. and China as the beginning of a new Cold War.
China struck back fiercely on Monday against the G-7, calling into question the group's importance as global leaders. In the past two decades, the economic heft of these seven nations has declined significantly. Twenty years ago, they represented about 65% of global gross domestic product and today they make up about 45%.
“The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone,” a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said, as reported by Reuters. “We always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries.”
The G-7 communiqué hit on many of the gripes the U.S. has with China.
It called for a new investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus in China, a reference to fresh allegations by the U.S. that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. China rejects this theory as absurd. A team of international experts convened by the World Health Organization went to China to look into how the virus emerged and largely dismissed the laboratory leak theory earlier this year. But a growing number of scientists now see it as a possible explanation.
The G-7 leaders also reprimanded China over its treatment of Uyghur Muslims, who allegedly have been rounded up by the hundreds of thousands and placed in “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, a province in far western China. Uyghurs report being the victims of torture, forced sterilization and other human rights abuses.
In another slap against China, which is accused of forcing Uyghurs to pick cotton by hand, the G-7 leaders said they were concerned about goods being traded globally made by “vulnerable groups and minorities” in conditions of forced labor. They said they were looking at how to eradicate “the use of all forms of forced labor in global supply chains.”
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