{"id":766,"date":"2026-06-14T04:38:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=766"},"modified":"2026-06-14T04:38:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:38:46","slug":"why-trump-and-other-g7-leaders-meeting-without-china-might-be-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=766","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump and other G7 leaders meeting without China might be a mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PARIS (AP) \u2014 From the outset, China wasn\u2019t included when major powers gathered in 1975 at a chateau outside Paris to fix the slumping global economy, the first of what have become annual summits by the G7<\/span> club of wealthy nations to forward their interests.<\/p>\n

Read more US strike against Tren de Aragua leader in Venezuela exemplifies Trump\u2019s approach to war on drugs<\/a><\/p>\n

No surprise there. Imagining Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong brainstorming with U.S. President Gerald Ford and other leaders would have been unthinkable.<\/p>\n

China was in turmoil, nowhere close to becoming the economic giant it is now. Mao had also helped defeat France<\/span> and U.S. forces<\/span> in Vietnam, by militarily supporting Ho Chi Minh\u2019s communists that took power. So Mao would have been the odd man out had he been at the inaugural Rambouillet summit of six nations, growing into the G7 when Canada joined the following year.<\/p>\n

But as U.S. President Donald Trump<\/span> and his G7 counterparts gather again in France from Monday, China\u2019s exclusion from the informal club\u2019s summits also looks odd, given its now immense sway over the world\u2019s economic well-being and affairs. <\/p>\n

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Put simply: Without China, does the G7 make sense? <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer look:<\/p>\n

By the numbers, China would be a shoo-in <\/h2>\n

If determined only by economic success, China would already be in the club.<\/p>\n

Its economy, swollen by decades of growth since Mao\u2019s death<\/span> in 1976, now dwarfs those of G7 nations Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada \u2014 leaving only the United States to catch. By this measure, a G7 summit without China is arguably like a soccer World Cup<\/span> without 5-time winner Brazil. <\/p>\n

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From being \u201conly a tiny, benign, panda bear\u201d in 1975, \u201dChina has become a great global dragon,\u201d says John Kirton, a University of Toronto specialist on the G7.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many understandably ask: Would the G7 and the global community be better off if China became a member of the G7 club? A plausible answer is \u2018Yes.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

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But it\u2019s only for democracies<\/h2>\n

A year ago, Trump mused about possibly expanding the club to include China, saying \u201c it\u2019s not a bad idea<\/span> ” when a journalist asked him.<\/p>\n

But an unwritten G7 rule has always been that it\u2019s only for democracies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are each responsible for the government of an open, democratic society, dedicated to individual liberty and social advancement,\u201d the founding leaders declared in Rambouillet in 1975.<\/p>\n

China wouldn\u2019t have cleared that bar then, during Mao\u2019s rule that claimed many millions of lives through famine and revolutionary upheaval.<\/p>\n

Nor, under President Xi Jinping<\/span>, would China do so now. By multiple measures, including the annual Freedom in the World study the World Press Freedom Index or the Canadian Fraser Institute\u2019s ranking of economic freedom, China lags far behind G7 nations for civil liberties.<\/p>\n

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