Biden Tries to Rally G7 Nations to Counter China’s Influence

The president urged the leaders of wealthy democracies to offer hundreds of billions in loans to developing nations in a direct challenge to Beijing’s Belt-and-Road Initiative.

PLYMOUTH, England — President Biden urged European nations and Japan on Saturday to counter China’s growing economic and security influence by offering developing nations hundreds of billions in financing as an alternative to relying on Beijing for new roads, railways, ports and communications networks. It was the first time the world’s richest nations had discussed organizing a direct alternative to China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping’s overseas lending and investment push, which has now spread across Africa, Latin America and into Europe itself. But the White House cited no financial commitments, and there is sharp disagreement among the United States and its allies about how to respond to China’s rising power. Mr. Biden has made challenging a rising China and a disruptive Russia the centerpiece of a foreign policy designed to build up democracies around the world as a bulwark against spreading authoritarianism. Beijing, for its part, has pointed to the poor U.S. response to the pandemic and divisive American politics — particularly the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol — as signs that democracy is failing.