Since entering the White House, US President Joe Biden has been talking about a single strategy to contain China’s trade and economic expansion and stop its expansion projects in the world. The strategy is based on building an alliance of “capitalist democracies” against Beijing. Perhaps the “Group of Seven” summit to be held on Friday in Cornwall on the English west coast for two days between 11 and 13 June, will be the first real test of how successful Joe Biden in implementing the strategy to contain China.
But what tools will Biden use at this summit to curb Chinese expansion, and will he succeed in persuading member states to adopt a unified stance toward China?
According to observers, among the tools used by Joe Biden to contain China, besieging the “Belt and Road” initiative that China has been implementing since 2013, and stopping the expansion of Chinese communications, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity technologies in the European and Asian markets.
Here, Biden does not differ in this policy from former President Donald Trump, who banned “Huawei and its subsidiaries” and pressured allies to ban them in their markets.
Despite the calm tone that Biden uses against the Chinese government, he applies the same policy implemented by Trump, which is based on banning Chinese companies and besieging their presence in Western markets and trading their shares on the American stock exchange and European stock exchanges.
Biden also plans during this summit to persuade partners in Europe to promote the policy of banning Chinese companies’ purchase of sensitive technical units in Europe that threaten security in capitalist countries, and to pressure Beijing to implement the clean environment agenda.
In addition to this agenda, according to these observers, the use of political issues, including human rights, and the violation of the autonomy agreement in Hong Kong.
According to the British Financial District, “City AM”, there is coordination that took place before the G7 summit to build a common position between the three major economies in Europe, which are Britain, Germany and France to support Biden’s strategy, and perhaps Italy will join these countries, which have strong interests with China.
In terms of besieging the “Belt and Road” projects, which aim to establish costly infrastructure projects to link the markets of Europe and Asia with Chinese goods and deliver them directly across seas, trains and tankers, and China has so far spent more than a trillion dollars on them, Biden’s strategy in besieging the “Belt and Road” is based on increasing Spending on infrastructure in Asia and Europe.
Biden has allocated a $2.3 trillion budget to modernize infrastructure in the United States, while his administration is urging the wealthy group to increase spending on infrastructure.
Besieging the “Belt and Road” projects, which aim to establish costly infrastructure projects to connect the markets of Europe and Asia with Chinese goods and deliver them directly across the seas, trains and tankers.
In this regard, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Saturday urged her G7 counterparts to maintain financial support for their economies despite “temporary” inflation, which she said will remain elevated for the rest of the year. Yellen also urged EU countries to increase spending on infrastructure and environment projects and provide financial support to Asian countries to modernize road, bridge and port projects, so as to block the way for China’s “Belt and Road” projects.
Perhaps at this summit, Biden will seek to cancel many of the tariffs and trade tariffs that the Donald Trump administration has imposed on some European exports in order to win over the European Union countries in the “democratic capitalist alliance” aimed at isolating China. The Biden administration seems dissatisfied with the investment agreement signed by Beijing with the European Union countries at the beginning of this year. Perhaps it will provide inducements to the EU countries, especially Germany and Italy, to urge them to stop cooperating with Beijing.
Italy was among the European countries that joined the “Belt and Road” initiative and signed an agreement 3 years ago, and therefore it may need US financial aid to stop that cooperation.
At the German level, where there are high technologies, Washington is seeking to persuade Germany to tighten the laws on foreign companies’ ownership of majority stakes in their companies, and thus restrict Chinese companies wishing to acquire German companies.
Berlin stopped a deal to own a major Chinese group for a small German company, despite the tempting sums it offered to buy it
It is noted that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during her tenure as prime minister, which extended for about 15 years and will end next September, was lenient with both China and Russia in this regard, according to observers.
German analysts believe that the major German companies that have major commercial interests in the Chinese market were behind this indulgence, and Russia has hired some politicians to serve its interests, especially in the project to lay gas pipelines, “Nord Stream 2”, which Washington strongly opposes.
According to the “Financial Times” newspaper, the mistrust between Germany and China has begun to increase this year despite the signing of a joint investment agreement between Beijing and Brussels, where the German government stopped a number of deals for Chinese groups’ ownership of German technology companies.
And last January, Berlin halted a deal to own a major Chinese group for a small German company, despite the tempting sums it offered to buy it, the IMST company specializing in radar and satellite technologies.
Although the company employs only 145 people and is unheard of outside Germany, it has been critical to China, which is looking for advanced technologies to fill the gaps in the 5G communications systems that the Trump administration has besieged. In this regard, a German official told the Financial Times, “We did not block the deal only for reasons related to the manufacture of weapons, but because of the high technology that the company owns and is characterized by Germany.”
Germany is the key chess piece in winning Europe to the Alliance of Capitalist Democracies. Besides its importance in shaping European opinion and the economy, Germany is a major trading partner with the United States.
The annual trade volume between the two countries before the Corona pandemic amounted to about 187 billion dollars in 2019, of which 60 billion dollars were US exports to Germany and 127 billion dollars were German exports to the United States, according to data from the “Statista” website, which deals with foreign trade between major economies.
Compared to China, according to Eurostat statistics in Brussels, the joint trade volume between China and Europe amounted to 650 billion dollars last year 2019. The trade balance is tilting in China’s favour. The volume of European exports to China amounted to 242 billion dollars, while European imports from China amounted to 442 billion dollars in 2019. Thus, Berlin will continue to calculate its commercial interests after Merkel’s absence from the political arena.
Also, the interests of trade with the Chinese market may constitute obstacles to Europe’s implementation of a strict containment policy towards Beijing. There are thousands of European companies that manufacture in the Chinese market at a cheap cost and sell their products in European markets at high prices.
On the Asian front, the developing animosity between India and China provides a convenient platform for President Biden in implementing the strategy of joint containment of China. In this regard, Japan continues to financially motivate its companies to withdraw from the Chinese market.
The volume of European exports to China amounted to 242 billion dollars, while European imports from China amounted to about 442 billion dollars in 2019.
Japan is one of the countries most affected by the expansion of Chinese companies in global markets, and Tokyo accuses China of stealing property rights from its companies and blackmailing companies by giving up some of their rights in exchange for allowing them to trade in the Chinese market or manufacture, and therefore the plan to blockade China may have great support at this summit. Despite objections from some members.
The summit of the rich countries, which will be held in the resort of Cornwall, southwest England, marks the first international summit that enjoys the personal presence of heads of state, and it is also the first major summit to be held in Britain after its exit from the European Union.
