Divisions between Donald Trump and G7 allies on trade ‘won’t help China’s negotiations with US’
EU, Canada still expected to side with US in pushing Beijing to make reforms
Group of Seven members may be distracted with their own trade tussles at the moment, but Chinese analysts say divisions within the bloc will not give Beijing any advantage when it comes to negotiating with Washington.
US President Donald Trump has found himself battling with the rest of the group at the two-day G7 summit in Canada this weekend, after hitting some allies with tariffs. As well as the 25 per cent duty on steel and 10 per cent tariff on aluminium imported from the European Union and Canada, Trump has also called out leaders from Canada and France on Twitter for setting up trade barriers.
Across the Pacific, Chinese state media tried to play down the G7 summit while playing up the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting that began in eastern China on Saturday. Led by China and Russia, a former G7 member, the regional security bloc also brings together leaders from India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
In an opinion piece on state-run China.org.cn on Friday, Renmin University academic John Ross called the Shanghai bloc “a bastion of global stability” – mainly because it had greater growth potential and covered a bigger proportion of the world’s population than the entire G7, whose members made a slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.