PARIS (AP) 鈥� From the outset, China wasn’t 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 club of wealthy nations to forward their interests.
No surprise there. Imagining Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong brainstorming with U.S. President Gerald Ford and other leaders would have been unthinkable.
China was in turmoil, nowhere close to becoming the economic giant it is now. Mao had also helped and in Vietnam, by militarily supporting Ho Chi Minh’s 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.
But as U.S. President and his G7 counterparts gather again in France from Monday, China鈥檚 exclusion from the informal club’s summits also looks odd, given its now immense sway over the world’s economic well-being and affairs.
Put simply: Without China, does the G7 make sense?
Here’s a closer look:
By the numbers, China would be a shoo-in
If determined only by economic success, China would already be in the club.
Its economy, swollen by decades of growth since in 1976, now dwarfs those of G7 nations Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada 鈥� leaving only the United States to catch. By this measure, a G7 summit without China is arguably like a without 5-time winner Brazil.
From being 鈥渙nly a tiny, benign, panda bear鈥� in 1975, 鈥滳hina has become a great global dragon,” says John Kirton, a University of Toronto specialist on the G7.
鈥淪o 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 鈥榊es.鈥欌��
But it’s only for democracies
A year ago, Trump mused about possibly expanding the club to include China, saying 鈥� ” when a journalist asked him.
But an unwritten G7 rule has always been that it’s only for democracies.
鈥淲e are each responsible for the government of an open, democratic society, dedicated to individual liberty and social advancement,鈥� the founding leaders declared in Rambouillet in 1975.
China wouldn鈥檛 have cleared that bar then, during Mao鈥檚 rule that claimed many millions of lives through famine and revolutionary upheaval.
Nor, under President , 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’s ranking of economic freedom, China lags far behind G7 nations for civil liberties.
China a priority subject for the G7
China鈥檚 clout impacts all G7 countries, in myriad ways. It sells far more goods than it buys, announcing of almost $1.2 trillion in 2025, which is a source of friction with other industrial powers. It controls supplies of . Its technological advances and growing military strength are giving rivals And it is the of climate-warming .
All this means that China will be an elephant in the room at the Monday-to-Wednesday summit in the Alpine spa town of Evian-les-Bains.
As host, French President has carved out time for the leaders to talk about how to rebalance trade with China, amid fears that soaring Chinese and other products could wreck G7 industries.
The chemistry between Trump and other G7 leaders has been 鈥� over and other bones of contention 鈥� but China could be an issue that unites them, said C茅dric Dupont, who specializes in international politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
鈥淭hey agree on the same thing, you know: China is a problem,鈥� he said.
Beijing looking on warily
China’s Communist Party-led government has in the past criticized the G7’s exclusiveness and painted it as a relic of the Cold War when the world was more divided along ideological lines.
But in a statement to The Associated Press ahead of the Evian gathering, the Chinese Foreign Ministry took a more nuanced view, saying 鈥渢he G7 should serve as a catalyst for solidarity and cooperation rather than an amplifier of division and confrontation.鈥�
Beijing-based analyst Wang Zichen says that 鈥淏eijing is wary of the G7 because it sees the group as structurally aligned with U.S.-led Western power, and increasingly as a venue where China is discussed as a challenge or threat.鈥�
But Chinese leaders cannot ignore it.
鈥淐hina recognizes that the G7 still represents a very significant concentration of economic, technological, military and financial power,” said Wang.
China seen as a threat to G7 cohesion
Analysts say that admitting China into the club could wreck its cohesion, not only because Beijing鈥檚 authoritarian system of government, interests and its positions on Russia, Iran and other major issues don鈥檛 align with those of G7 democracies but also because its presence could test their long-standing alliances.
鈥淐hina inside would indeed be a Trojan horse,鈥� said Kirton. With a Chinese leader at the table, 鈥渋ndividual members might be tempted to break G7 ranks to secure special favors from him on the economic, critical minerals, digital technology and other issues they address.鈥�
Chris Alden, an international relations expert at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said that adding China 鈥渨ould make it very difficult for it to function.鈥�
Russia’s example is also a barrier to China
The G7’s last expansion 鈥� accepting Russia as a member in 1998 鈥� didn’t end well.
The club froze out Russian President when he from Ukraine in 2014, foreshadowing the now raging since 2022.
Trump said last year that excluding Russia 鈥渨as a very big mistake.鈥�
But Kirton said the experience convinced other leaders “that they should never take a chance on a less than fully democratic power becoming a full member of their fully democratic club again.鈥�
___
Associated Press writers Ken Moritsugu and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
