G7 threatens China with more sanctions over Russian war support

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G7 leaders issued their sternest warning yet to China over its support for Russia, attacking Beijing for “enabling” Russia’s war in Ukraine, and threatening more sanctions if Beijing continues to transfer material used by Moscow’s defense industry. .

The joint statement at the end of your summit in Italy It included a much tougher stance toward China than in the past, exposing growing frustration in the U.S. and Europe with Beijing’s critical support for Russia during the war in Ukraine.

“China’s continued support of Russia’s defense industrial base is enabling Russia to continue its illegal war in Ukraine and has significant and broad security implications,” the G7 leaders said in a joint statement.

“We call on China to cease the transfer of dual-use materials, including weapons components and equipment, which are inputs to Russia’s defense sector.”

The US has long pressured its European partners in G7 — the EU, France, Germany and Italy, as well as the United Kingdom — to follow more closely its more aggressive approach to Chinaarguing that the country’s role in supporting President Vladimir Putin’s regime, as wages war against Ukraine means that Beijing has chosen to side Russia against the west.

A US official said on Friday that China’s support for Russia poses a “long-term threat to Europe’s security and is a cause for concern for all G7 members.”

This vision is now increasingly shared within the group. On Friday, the world’s main advanced economies also said they were willing to take further measures to punish China financially, including through sanctions. The US and EU have already sanctioned Chinese companies that they say helped Russia import products banned by Western embargoes.

“We will continue to take action against actors in China and third countries who materially support Russia’s war machine, including financial institutions, in a manner consistent with our legal systems,” they said.

According to a person familiar with the talks, discussions about China featured “strong language” about Beijing’s support for Russia and its role in helping Moscow circumvent Western sanctions.

This came along with what the person said was “a willingness to act against Russian-Iranian cooperation, including military equipment and battlefield knowledge.”

A second person familiar with the negotiations said: “The era of naivety towards Beijing is definitely over and China is to blame for that, honestly.”

In addition to concerns about China’s ties with Russia, the G7 is also becoming more confrontational over Beijing’s economic policies.

Negotiations take place days after the EU announced new tariffs about Chinese electric car makers, which it says are benefiting from unfair subsidies, and after the US imposed new taxes on clean energy products and other imports from China last month.

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G7 leaders will say they are ready to do more to combat what they consider to be policies that lead to “global spillovers, market distortions and damaging overcapacity across a growing range of sectors”.

“We will continue to take necessary and appropriate steps to protect our workers and businesses from unfair practices, to level the playing field, and to remedy ongoing harms,” the statement said.

However, there is not complete harmony within the G7 on how to respond on the economic front.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, told her fellow G7 leaders on Friday that they should agree to “follow the principle of ‘doing no harm’ to each other” when taking countermeasures, said a person briefed on the developments. prepared comments. “We must be aware that the measures any of us introduce do not have negative effects on each other, including unintended ones,” she said.

“To be frank, China is everywhere in the G7,” said a senior EU official. “The question we have is how to calibrate our actions to respond.”

Chinese state media attacked the summit, with the government news agency Xinhua noting protests in Brindisi, a city 60 km away, over environmental issues and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The state-backed nationalist tabloid Global Times has tried to portray the US as manipulating its G7 allies in Europe into taking action against Russia and turning against China on issues such as Ukraine and industrial overcapacity.

But the Global Times said some European countries have strong trade relations with China and are eager to avoid a trade war.

“Amid internal conflicts and inconsistent policies, it is already a challenge for G7 countries to find their own direction, let alone establish ‘rules’ for the world,” he said.

Additional reporting by Joe Leahy in Beijing

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