At June’s G7 meeting, U.S. President, Joe Biden, received the backing of the world’s seven largest advanced economies (comprised of the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan) to set up an alternative to China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) initiative as part of a broad push back against Beijing’s increasing influence around the globe. Although much of the official comments surrounding the announcement consisted of vague and fluffy statements about human rights, Joe Biden’s previous comments about China are much more informative as to what the real thrust of this U.S.-led alternative to the OBOR is. Most appositely, in correctly grouping China together with Russia in the context of both the Middle East and Asia, Biden stated during the presidential election campaign that he regarded China as a “serious competitor” to the U.S. and Russia as an “opponent”. What this means for those countries in the […]