G7 and Quad are finally taking China head on

The G7 and Quad summits held in Hiroshima, Japan, had one common denominator– a sharpened focus on China. Both groupings with partly overlapping memberships announced a range of new initiatives and policies to push back against Chinese expansionism and exploitative behaviour. While the fundamental raison d’être of Quad is to usher in a balanced Indo-Pacific and deter China’s hegemonic conduct, the fact that the historically Eurocentric and Western-oriented G7 has also stepped in to constrain China’s muscle-flexing indicates there is realisation even in Europe and North America that the security of the Atlantic and the Pacific are interlinked.

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The G7’s launch of a new “Coordination Platform on Economic Coercion” is aimed at China’s predatory practices. Beijing’s weaponisation of economic interdependence and strategic manipulation of global supply chains to blackmail and unleash punitive actions against countries that oppose it on geopolitical, human rights or transparency grounds have brought home the message that geographical distance from Asia does not provide Europe and North America any immunity. China’s retaliatory economic warfare against Australia, Canada, Japan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Norway, the Philippines and South Korea shows that any country can be subjected to intimidation if it crosses Beijing’s red lines.

The G7 leaders have vowed to reduce excessive dependencies in critical supply chains, protect advanced technologies pertinent to national security, and deter interference activities aimed at undermining security and safety. These are all salvoes aimed at China. For years, Beijing’s strategy was to keep the G7 divided between a “pragmatic” Europe that treats China as a useful partner and an “ideological” United States which is moving to wage a crusade to contain and encircle China. But the Hiroshima G7 summit revealed that there is at least basic agreement among Western powers on the need to restrain China.

Still, given the deeply intertwined economic fates of the West and China, the G7 will be hard-pressed to walk the talk on taming the dragon. G7 leaders are politicians and can recognise the challenge posed to the rules-based international order by a revisionist China. But European and North American businesses continue to be heavily invested in China, and it is their pressure that resulted in the G7 clarifying that it is “not decoupling” from China but only looking for “de-risking and diversifying”. Tesla chief Elon Musk’s warning against trying to separate “conjoined twins”, i.e. Chinese and Western economies, is a sobering reality check. Compelling or inducing Western multinational corporations to kick their China habit is a herculean task.

Quad leaders’ commitment in Hiroshima to shore up regional institutions — the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) — and their decision to set up and expand infrastructure fellowships, undersea cable connectivity, radio and telecom networks, and maritime domain awareness, revealed that they see China as a clear and present danger.

Given Beijing’s intransigent and condescending attitude towards smaller countries in the Indo-Pacific, the Quad is putting flesh on the bones to a variety of causes so that the region has concrete alternatives to China. As tangible on-the-ground projects jointly funded and implemented by Quad become visible in vulnerable Indo-Pacific countries, it will have a demonstrative effect and erase the monopolistic advantage that Beijing has established over the past decade through projects such as Belt and Road Initiative.

China has long held the initiative to reshape the regional and global orders through its proactive military-cum-economic moves. What the G7 and Quad are finally doing is to put a brake on this process and prove that China will not be allowed to remain the only game in town. If western members of the G7 integrate their Indo-Pacific outlooks with that of Quad and both these institutions pool their resources and coordinate their projects in the Indo-Pacific, the combined weight will be sufficient to stall the Chinese juggernaut.

There can, of course, be many slips between the proverbial cup and lip. But the G7 and Quad are moving beyond merely expressing intent and are entering the zone of action. May the force be with them.

Sreeram Chaulia is Dean, Jindal School of International Affairs The views expressed are personal