It's not just Russia: China joins the list of G7 adversaries

President Biden was eager to leave the stage at the Group of 7 summit Thursday evening, visibly a little irritable after answering questions about Hunter Biden's conviction and the prospects for a Gaza ceasefire.

But at the end of his news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he couldn't help but interject as the Ukrainian leader delicately spoke about closer relations between China and Russia. He leaned toward his microphone as soon as Mr. Zelensky was finished.

By the way, China is not providing weapons for the war in Ukraine, Mr. Biden said, but the capacity to produce those weapons and the technology available to do so.

So, in fact, it helps Russia, he said.

Throughout the Group of 7 summit in Puglia, China was a hidden presence: as the savior of the Russian war machine, in the words of the final summit communiqué; as a growing threat in the South China Sea; and as a wayward economic player, abandoning electric cars in Western markets and threatening to withhold critical minerals needed for high-tech industries.

In total, there are 28 references to China in the final statement, almost all of which depict Beijing as a malevolent force.

The contrast with Chinese representation just a few years ago is stark.

At previous summits, the largest Western economies have often talked about partnering with Beijing to combat climate change, counterterrorism and nuclear proliferation. While China has never been invited to the G7 as Russia once was, Moscow joined the group in 1997 and was suspended when it annexed Crimea in 2014. Beijing has often been described as a partner, a supplier and above all a superb customer of everything that comes from Germany. cars with French couture.

Not anymore. This year, China and Russia have often been discussed in the same breath and in the same threatening terms, perhaps the natural result of their deepening partnership.

A senior Biden administration official who sat in on the assembled leaders' conversations at the summit and then briefed reporters described a discussion about China's role that seemed to assume the relationship would be increasingly adversarial.

Over time, it is becoming clear that President Xi's goal is Chinese dominance, ranging from trade to influence on security issues around the world, the official told reporters, declining to be named as he described the closed-door talks.

But it was China's support for Russia that was a new element at this year's summit and may have changed minds in Europe. The subject of China's role has barely come up at the last two summits, and when it has, it has often been about the influence of its top leader, Xi Jinping, as a moderating force. on President Vladimir V. Putin, especially when there were fears that Mr. Putin might detonate a nuclear weapon on Ukrainian territory.

This time, the tone was very different, right from the press release itself.

We will continue to take action against actors in China and third countries that materially support the Russian war machine, the leaders' statement said, including financial institutions, consistent with our legal systems, and other entities in China which facilitate Russia's acquisition of items for its defense industrial base. .

The United States had insisted on including this language and was pressuring its allies to align with Mr. Biden's action earlier this week, when the Treasury Department issued a number of new sanctions aimed at to disrupt growing technological ties between Russia and China. But so far, few G7 countries have taken similar steps.

Within the Biden administration, there is growing belief that Mr. Xi's view of China's role in the Ukraine war has changed over the past year and that he will increasingly bring his support for Mr. Putin, with whom he declared an unprecedented partnership. boundaries.

Just a few months ago, most administration officials considered the phrase hyperbole, and even Mr. Biden, in public comments, expressed doubts about whether the two countries could overcome their enormous suspicions. towards each other to work together.

That view has now changed, and some administration officials have said they believe Beijing is also working to discourage countries from participating in a peace conference hosted by Mr. Zelensky. More than 90 countries will attend the conference in Switzerland this weekend, but Russia will not attend and China, which a year ago expressed interest in various ceasefire and peace plans , said she would not attend either.

According to Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, China now opposes any peace effort in which it cannot be the central actor.

It appears that Xi will not abandon his troublesome Russian partner or even pretend to help kyiv, Gabuev wrote in Foreign Affairs on Friday. Instead, China chose a more ambitious, but also riskier, approach. It will continue to help Moscow and sabotage Western-led peace proposals. He then hopes to intervene and use his influence over Russia to bring both sides to the table to try to negotiate a lasting deal.

U.S. officials at the summit said they largely agreed with Mr. Gabuev's diagnosis, but said they doubted China had the diplomatic experience to make it work.

But the shift in opinion on China goes well beyond questions revolving around Ukraine's endgame. European countries that worried a few years ago about the United States becoming too confrontational with China signed the communiqué this year, which calls for more robust Western supply chains that are less dependent on Chinese companies.

Implicitly, the jointly released statement also blames China for a series of major hacks of US and European critical infrastructure, urging China to uphold its commitment to act responsibly in cyberspace and promising to continue our efforts to disrupt and deter cybercrime. Persistent malicious cyberactivity originating from China, which threatens the security and privacy of our citizens, undermines innovation, and endangers our critical infrastructure.

This reference to infrastructure appears to be linked to a Chinese program that the United States calls Volt Typhoon. U.S. intelligence officials described it as a sophisticated effort by China to place Chinese-created malware in the water systems, power grids and port operations of the United States and its allies.

In testimony and interviews before Congress, Biden administration officials claimed the malware's real goal was to gain the ability to shut down vital services in the United States amid a crisis in Taiwan, thereby slowing down the US military response and triggering chaos among Americans. would be more concerned with the return of water than with maintaining Taiwan's independence.