Dr. Achut Gautam

The Group of Seven met together in Cornwall of the United Kingdom on 11-13 June 2021, intending to send a revivalist message to the world that “America was back”. Having prepared the venue to execute the policy of partnership and engagement, President Joe Biden was more than keen to replace the isolationist stance of Donald Trump’s “America first” ideology. Of course, it did lure his domestic audience and also reverberate into the global ecosystem, but how successful has the club of seven been is yet to be seen down the road to global peace, development and understanding among nations.
China’s accent to global power which began peacefully following the 1970s, the period popularly known in China and elsewhere as the Deng era, has steadily moved on to the present where clear signs of newly emergent global order are evident. Today’s largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) is China which surpassed that of the US in 2017 while economists further agree that Chinese economy will outstrip that of the US by 2028.

Gross misunderstanding
President Biden’s effort to posture the post-COVID-19 world to that of the Cold War period is a gross misunderstanding of history, culture and politics and thus could prove tragic if the G7 member countries and their citizens do not question his argument of democracy vs. autocracy as they certainly realise that the US-China dispute at best is far from being ideological.
In the post-COVI-19 world, the world order based on unipolarty isn’t sustainable anymore and the US in particular has denied coming to terms with this inevitable reality. The US-led world order and rules based international systems have provided China with the opportunity and the legacy to peacefully scale up the position in global power. China understands this and also understands that multipolarity is inevitable. Excluding China and Russia from the G7 was not a good idea to begin with.
Deng’s four modernisations needed the US while the US needed a strong ally to counter the Soviet communists. In this mutual chemistry at work, China’s dreams and the interests of the US ushered these great states together. Interdependency has grown over the years of partnership and trade, thus calling for decupling is not only infeasible, it is impossible on the global scale. G7 members understand that China cannot be an adversary; it rather is an economy for cooperation and competition towards the global good.
As far as rebuilding America’s discredited image around the world, by improving relations with allies and friends in Europe, previously neglected by Trump is concerned, it is understood well as it is through the processes of bilateralism, multilateralism, or through global institutions and geopolitical dialogues that the current paradox and misunderstanding between cultures and nations can be sorted, but to lead the club towards global uncertainty and possible confrontations are those very actions that need avoiding.
The important fact to reflect upon is: did President Biden succeed in rallying his G7 partners to an anti-China consensus by issuing statement saying, “we will harness the power of democracy, freedom, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights to answer the biggest questions and overcome the greatest challenges”? I strongly believe he didn’t, as there was no consensus among G7 members and NATO members on what China really stood for – a partner, or a competitor or a security threat.

Possible pitfalls
However, given the fact, China has overtaken the US as the major trading partner of the EU since 2020, Biden’s anti-China rhetoric has placed the EU in a very precarious position and indeed not a love thy neighbor policy of the US. As far as Build Back Better World (B3W) goes, one can only hope that $40 +trillion infrastructure needs in the developing world can be addressed to benefit the global community rather than as means to counter the BRI and a wishful thinking.
However, pondering over the possible pitfalls and for B3W to work, much will depend on the availability of the volume of cash on time and whether the profit-driven capital of the West can serve those human needs neglected by it so far. Let us not forget, China offered to help after the West abandoned the region in poverty, debt and despair.

(Dr. Gautam is the former president Students’ Union of Trichandra College, Kathmandu)