G7's rivalry with China complicates Korea's balancing act

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, back row right, talks with heads of states during the Climate and Nature plenary session at the G7 Summit in Cornwall, the U.K., Sunday. From left in the back row are South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Johnson, and in the front is Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Yonhap

By Kwon Mee-yoo

The Group of Seven (G7), a bloc of the world's wealthiest seven democracies, has stepped up efforts to counter China's growing influence, agreeing on the need for a joint approach to China's trade and human rights issues. This puts Korea, which has been balancing between China and the U.S., in a difficult position.

During the G7 Summit at Carbis Bay in Cornwall, U.K., from Friday to Sunday, leaders of the participating nations discussed the China issue, mainly in the fifth plenary session titled "Open Societies," held Sunday (GMT). Korea has been participating in the summit as a guest country along with Australia, India and South Africa, with President Moon Jae-in trying to position Korea among the world's wealthiest democracies.

Along with imminent issues such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, China's re-emergence as a superpower was a major theme of the summit.

China's growing leverage propelled the G7 leaders to talk about issues sensitive to China, including human rights abuses and forced labor allegedly taking place in China's Xinjiang region.

According to a draft version of the G7 Summit communique seen by Reuters, Sunday, the G7 called on China to respect human rights in its Xinjiang region and allow a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong, while underscoring the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

The leaders also agreed to provide more financial support to developing nations, focusing on their fight against climate change, but it is believed to be a part of plans to rival China's "debt diplomacy."

This scheme is apparently a campaign to counter China's "Belt and Road Initiative," a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, involving development and investment projects in over 100 countries, from Asia to Europe.

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Earlier on Saturday, the White House also announced the launch of the "Build Back Better World" (B3W) project, a global infrastructure plan aimed to provide infrastructure support to developing and emerging countries.

The White House said that the B3W project will mobilize private-sector capital in a "transparent infrastructure partnership" to provide support in four areas ― climate, health, digital technology and gender equity and equality ― for developing countries hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"B3W will be global in scope, from Latin America and the Caribbean, to Africa, to the Indo-Pacific. Different G7 partners will have different geographic orientations, but the sum of the initiative will cover low- and middle-income countries across the world," the White House said in a statement.

President Moon Jae-in walks away after taking a commemorative photo with the heads of the G7 and guests countries in front of the Carbis Bay Hotel in Cornwall, the U.K., Saturday (local time). Yonhap

Korea has been trying to balance between China and the U.S., as China is Korea's largest trading partner due to their close geographical proximity, and the U.S. is a strong ally of Korea. In this context, the G7's consensus on countering China's Belt and Road Initiative, as well as in dealing with human rights and other issues, puts Korea in a trickier position, although Korea was not among the seven countries that issued the communique.

China nudged Korea right ahead of the G7 gathering, sending signals to Korea to stay firm in its partnership with China.

On Thursday, the day before the G7 Summit kicked off, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong emphasizing that China and Korea are friendly neighbors and strategic partners.

"China strongly opposes the U.S. government's Indo-Pacific strategy, as it is full of Cold War thinking and incites a collective confrontation, while not helping to develop regional peace," Wang told Chung, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the Korea-U.S. Summit in May, Moon mentioned that Korea would work with the U.S. on "peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," and China immediately issued a warning to Korea not to get involved in the matter.

Shin Beom-chul, director of the Center of Diplomacy and National Security at the Research Institute for Economy and Society, said the B3W could offer an alternative, instead of relying on solely Beijing, for third-world countries which need infrastructure development.

"Other G7 countries are likely to join the B3W to hold China in check and the developing countries would have another choice," Shin said.

"Major areas of focus of the B3W such as climate change, health and digital technology might be seen as targeting China, but those were also agreed at the Korea-U.S. Summit and Korea is likely to participate in the project as it is difficult to refuse a multilateral commitment that is already agreed on a bilateral level. There is no concrete plan nor process yet and Korea should participate in the project, taking a step back instead of ahead, considering relations with China."