China says days when world was ruled by small group are over

Beijing, June 13 (RHC)-- Leaders of the so-called Group of Seven (G-7) largest economies have adopted an openly hostile anti-China stance, including a U.S.-proposed rival plan to counter China’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative (BRI) by investing in infrastructure in developing countries.

The adoption of the Build Back Better World (B3W) project came after U.S. President Joe Biden and other G-7 leaders held their meeting in southwestern England over the weekend as part of attempts to confront China’s surging economic and military rise over the past four decades.

“This is not just about confronting or taking on China,” a senior official in the Biden administration said.  “But until now we haven’t offered a positive alternative that reflects our values, our standards and our way of doing business.”

The White House said the B3W was meant to address “strategic competition with China and commit to concrete actions to help meet the tremendous infrastructure need in low- and middle-income countries.”   Washington added that the G-7 initiative would be similarly global in scope, estimating that more than $40 trillion was needed for building infrastructure in developing nations in a “values-driven, high-standard and transparent” partnership.

“B3W will collectively catalyze hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment for low- and middle-income countries in the coming years,” it said.

Leaders of G-7 -- comprised of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States -- expressed hope that the plan would provide a transparent infrastructure partnership to help narrow the $40 trillion required for developing countries by 2035.

Beijing has responded by saying such doubts betray the “imperial hangover” of many Western powers that humiliated China for centuries.   China denounced as “prejudiced” the critics of its massive global economic effort, called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

“We always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries.  The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone,” a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in London said on Saturday in response to the rhetoric coming from Cornwall. 

The embassy noted that the only legitimate global “order” is based on UN-backed international law, and not the “so-called system and order advocated by a handful of countries.”  Beijing supports “genuine multilateralism” based on the principles of equal treatment and cooperation, and rejects the “pseudo-multilateralism” which only serves the interests of a “small clique,” the spokesperson added.  

China has accused Washington of “fanning confrontation” by trying to rally G7 nations to form a united front against Beijing.  Attempts to “gang up” on Beijing will fail, the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, calling for a more “objective and rational” approach to international relations. 

China has long maintained that Washington’s influence over global affairs is waning.  China’s state-funded Global Times argued in an op-ed earlier this month that the world’s “economic and political center of gravity has shifted eastward,” noting that even European allies are gradually turning away from the U.S.’ uncompromising stance on Beijing.