N°15-07/08/2021 Gathered at Carbis Bay for three days for the first time since the Biarritz summit in 2019, the heads of state and government of the G7 strove to establish a line vis-à-vis the Asian giant.
Although China was not invited to the G7 table, it was at the heart of the debate. China, whose economic, technological, military and diplomatic rise to power undoubtedly makes it the second world power, is therefore designated by the United States as its major adversary and the entire US strategy consists in containing this development as much as possible. Beijing did not fail to reply: "The days when world decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone," said a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in London: "the only genuine multilateralism […] is that which treats everyone as equal and promotes mutually beneficial cooperation. "Not the pseudo-multilateralism based on the interests of cliques and on a policy of blocs" hammered the head of Chinese diplomacy, Yang Jiechi.
China United States a trade war
G7 leaders agreed on the need to find a concerted approach to respond to competition from China, especially regarding the New Silk Roads. Beijing and Moscow are targeted. The G7 offers developing countries a vast program for their infrastructures. A project whose underlying goal is to counter the growing influence of China with its "new silk roads". This G7 program is estimated at 40 trillion dollars, enough to whet the appetite of profit-hungry multinationals.“We know that there is a huge need for infrastructure in Africa […]. We cannot just say that China will take care of it,” for her part explained German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This week the US Senate adopted a bill providing for ambitious investments in science and technology, presented as a "historic" text to counter the economic threat from China.
The "yes but" of Europeans to Joe Biden against China
However the Europeans intend to keep a certain independence vis-à-vis Washington. Faced with Western pressure, on the eve of the G7, China has adopted a legal arsenal, which legalizes reprisals in the event of foreign sanctions against Chinese individuals or entities. The text legalizes "the sealing, seizure and freezing of property" of people or companies that would apply sanctions against China. Tensions are not about to subside. For Germany, as for others, a priority: its industry and its multinationals! In January 2021, Germany, which chaired the EU, signed an investment deal with China. Economic and trade relations between the European Union and China are already very important. China is the second trading partner of the European Union behind the United States!
It represents 20.2% of the Union's imports of goods and absorbs 10.5% of its exports. On the investment side, the European Union has invested around 150 billion euros in the Middle Kingdom and the latter has placed at least the same amount on the old continent. German multinationals (Daimler, Mercedes, Volkswagen) supported the conclusion of this agreement. These companies are now making a higher turnover in the Chinese market than they do in the American market; the Chinese market, especially with the transition to hybrid and electric motors, offers them the prospect of juicy profits. German imports from the United States increased slightly to reach 6.7 billion euros in March, while German exports to the United States increased by 8.8%. In comparison total exports of Germany in March rose 16.1% compared to the same month last year to reach 126.5 billion euros. At the same time, the country's imports increased by 15.5% to 105.9 billion euros. As Olaf Kiesewetter, managing director of the German supplier of automotive sensors, which plans to increase its share of sales in China to 25%, puts it. “Without the Chinese market, our third quarter results would not have been as good. No doubt about it, we owe our good results to China.”
* Several flagships of European industry have passed under Chinese flag: Volvo in Sweden, Pirelli in Italy, Club Med and Lanvin in France, Kuka and Krauss Maffei, two German SMEs specializing in machine tools and industrial robotics….
* Italy has joined the Silk Roads project, making its ports of Genoa and Trieste available to Chinese companies to locate in Europe.
* Athens has handed over the port of Piraeus to the Chinese carrier Cosco, which has also taken over control of the container ports of Bilbao and Valencia in Spain.
* Portugal received 6MM euros in loans from China in exchange for China's bank takeover of Felidade, the country’s largest private bank.
China Three Gorges has control over EDP (Energias do Portugal), the country's leading electricity group.
* Central and Eastern European countries now hold an annual summit with China.
While the G7 is the armed wing of the bitter trade war against China, NATO, whose meeting was held the day after the G7, is the military arm of the USA which is working to rally an imperialist military alliance against China and Russia. These clashes within imperialism can only keep growing as the interests of multinationals are enormous and require domination for the control of resources and labor power under conditions allowing the highest profit rates. Thus for them, in given circumstances war is only seen as just another means to achieve their objectives. Capitalism therefore always carries war as a by-product of its law of development which is profit and the accumulation of capital by all means.
To face these threats, there do not exist two possible ways: one which would consist in letting it happen and the other in adapting capital to make it more human, – which it is not, by nature.
There is only one way which is the way of the class struggle on a national and international scale to sweep away this predatory system and replace it with a society free from the exploitation of Man by Man. This is our party’s struggle.