Countering China seems to be the ‘soup du jour’ during last week’s G7 meeting in Hiroshima.

Besides Ukraine, the West has been focused on becoming less dependent on China because of what it sees as an unfair trade balance, a disapproval of Beijing’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “economic coercion,” and bellicose language vis-à-vis Taiwan. 

TRENDPOST: China has spoken out strongly against the depiction and said these countries are blindly following the U.S. down the road to economic peril. (See “CHINA TELLS EUROPE: U.S. POLICIES WILL HURT YOUR COUNTRY” 16 May 2023, “YELLEN: BIDEN WILLING TO DAMAGE U.S. ECONOMY TO CONTAIN CHINA” 25 Apr 2023, and “THE BOTTOM LINE: FRANCE’S MACRON’S PUSHING CLOSER TO CHINA AND AWAY FROM U.S.” 18 Apr 2023.)

Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, seems to agree with the U.S. that China poses a major threat to the world. He called Beijing the “greatest challenge of our age” and criticized it for being “increasingly authoritarian at home and abroad,” according to the BBC. 

President Joe Biden called the meeting effective and said there is an agreement for a united front against China.

“We’re not looking to decouple from China,” Biden said, essentially repeating the line from Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. He said these countries are more united than ever to resist “economic corrosion together and countering harmful practices that harm our workers.”

“Bullshit” Biden may not have been fully accurate with that assessment.

Zack Cooper, former aide to the U.S. National Security Council and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Politico that “There’s a feeling that there’s a little bit of a gap, perhaps, between where the Europeans are on some China issues and where the U.S. is.”

The report noted that countries like France have spoken out against NATO getting involved with Taiwan and China’s actions in the region, while the U.S. and Japan—two hawks—welcome the move. 

Von der Leyen, who was at the summit, said it is clear that the bloc is “competing with China” and will need to be better positioned. 

“We will reduce strategic dependencies—we have learned the lessons of the last year,” she said, according to Politico.

Still, Biden said Sunday that he hopes the relationship between the U.S. and China improves and is optimistic that there can soon be some kind of a breakthrough. Beijing did not appear as optimistic.  

“The US side asks for communication on the one side, yet on the other, suppresses and contains China by every possible means,” Mao Ning, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said, according to Bloomberg. “It imposes sanctions on Chinese officials, entities, and companies—what is the sincerity and meaning of such communication? The US should roll back sanctions immediately, clear the hurdles and create favorable conditions for dialog.” 

TRENDPOST: The West’s hypocrisy when it comes to China gets more laughable by the week.  

To suggest that Beijing should be punished economically over “human rights abuses” was roundly criticized by China’s Global Times as U.S. hypocrisy, considering Washington’s war record: “Of the over 200 armed conflicts that have occurred in the world, from the end of World War II until 2001, more than 80 percent were initiated by the U.S. The wars did not bring a ‘better future,’ but instead left behind a heap of mess. As reported in an article by TASS on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the only thing the U.S. has done is to plunge occupied countries into complete chaos.”

And as we have forecast, the bottom line is the bottom line: MONEY. And considering the size of China’s market place Europe will do what it can to make all the money they can selling products to China. 

We’ve already seen French President Emmanuel Macron last month warn European countries that they need to make their own decisions when it comes to China and international diplomacy and that France was not a “vassal” of the U.S.

“Is it in our interest to accelerate on the subject of Taiwan? No,” Macron told reporters. “The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and adapt to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction.”