On Sunday, during a press conference after the Group of Seven economic summit in Hiroshima, President Biden told reporters that the G7 nations agreed to a united approach to China that would diversify supply chains to reduce their dependence on one country, Reuters reported.
The president assured reporters that the G7 does not look to “decouple from China,” but to “de-risk and diversify” its relationship with the country. He said the G7 nations are even more unified about “resisting economic coercion” and “countering harmful practices” that hurt workers.
The G7 leaders outlined their “de-risk, not decouple” economic plan with China in a communique released on Saturday. This prompted the Chinese embassy in Japan to demand that the G7 stop fomenting division and confrontation.
Despite Beijing’s harsh reaction, the president told reporters that he expects the tense relations with China to cool “very shortly.”
Biden said the US should have “an open hotline” with China. He pointed out that he and China’s President Xi Jinping had agreed during last year’s G20 summit in Bali to keep lines of communication open between their countries, but that changed after the “silly balloon” incident in February.
Biden also said that there was a clear understanding among most of the G7 allies that if China acts unilaterally against Taiwan, “there would be a response.” He added that the US would not tell China what to do, but it would continue to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself.
The president also reiterated that the G7 countries would not trade in materials that would enable China to build weapons of mass destruction. He told reporters that he would not consider ease restrictions on China over these materials, but added that negotiations were underway on whether to ease the sanctions placed on Chinese General Li Shangfu, who in March was named the country’s new Defense Minister.
