June 12, 2021

PLYMOUTH, England — The Group of Seven wealthy democracies tussled Saturday over how explicitly to admonish China over human rights in an upcoming joint declaration.

In private meetings, public statements and background briefings with reporters, each country staked out its position during the second day of the annual G-7 summit, held this year in southwest England.

The U.S. came out early, telling reporters it would make a priority of singling out China’s use of forced labor against the Uyghur and other minorities in Xinjiang in the text. And Canada publicly expressed the desire to list the names of two citizens that Beijing detained in retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a Huawei executive. Then, as the day wore on, EU officials questioned whether the framing should be about China’s violations specifically or forced labor more broadly, according to a senior diplomat involved in the talks.

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