As a communiqué issued after the three-day Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers and central bank governors meeting that concluded on Saturday made no mention of China at all, experts said that G7 member states are facing more obvious differences, which cast doubts on whether the group will be able to reach a joint statement at the summit on measures to counter China's "economic coercion." 

The G7 nations' financial leaders agreed to cooperate in order to "improve economic resilience globally against various shocks, stand firm to protect our shared values, and preserve economic efficiency by upholding the free, fair, and rules-based multilateral system," according to a joint statement issued after the meeting. However, the leaders only made a single mention to the necessity of maintaining "rule-based international order" throughout the entire communiqué.

According to a Reuters report on Friday, during the summit to be held in Japan between May 19 and 21, G7 leaders will discuss concerns about so-called China's economic coercion in its dealings abroad as part of their larger joint statement.

According to Reuters, a "US official who is familiar with the discussions" stated that the G7 would issue a statement outlining how the seven developed economies would cooperate to counter "economic coercion" from any nation, as well as a separate statement outlining "tools" that would be used to counter such efforts.

"The possible act of smearing China in the G7 statement would be driven by the new Cold War mindset. It is an act of misinforming the world, an effort to shirk responsibilities, and a demonstration of self-righteous bigotry," Li Yong, deputy chairman of the Expert Committee of the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"Discrediting China in the joint statement would be a sign of irresponsibility and the inability of the G7 to address the burning issues that plague the world today, many of which are coming from within the group," Li said, referring to issues such as the US' looming debt default and the technological coercions that distort and disrupt global supply chains.

An earlier Bloomberg study described the challenges the US and EU were having in addressing the growing dangers from China while still maintaining strong ties to the communist nation through its supply chains. After the epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, even the EU has taken a more antagonistic position against China. China was referred to as a rival and a competitor by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week. The top 7 economies in the world disagree on how to proceed with any coordinated effort to reduce the risks brought on by China's growth, though.

On Friday, China's foreign ministry criticized the US and EU for their "hypocritical assertions."

“If any country should be criticized for economic coercion, it should be the United States. The U.S. has been overstretching the concept of national security, abusing export controls, and taking discriminatory and unfair measures against foreign companies,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of China’s foreign ministry said. 

According to media reports, US government sanctions designations soared by 933 percent between 2000 and 2021. More than 9,400 sanctions designations had come into effect in the US by fiscal year 2021. 

Wang urged G7 countries to stop engaging in exclusive "small circles" and refrain from becoming accomplices to economic coercion.

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