G-8 Opens Up_大G

  The annual G-8 summit catches the world’s attention and it is no exception this year. The G-8 summit held in St. Petersburg naturally attracted attention from the international community.
  Three major reasons make the G-8 summit so attractive: First, its eight members are the world’s strongest Western powers politically and economically, occupying crucial positions in the current world structure. To a greater extent, they control the prospect of world peace and development. Second, the topics they discuss every year are always global issues of universal concern or important regional issues. The G-8 has become a barometer of global issues, as well as a thermometer of the world’s hot problems. Third, the G-8 summit is no longer closed to the rest of the world and actively invites developing nations for dialogue. The G-8 summit increasingly shows it is becoming a summit of world powers, enlarging and increasing its roles in international affairs and in dealing with the North-South relationship, namely, the relationship between rich and impoverished countries.
  Actually, the G-8 summit always changes according to the evolution of international situations and the deepening of globalization. Its roles are also gradually increasing.
  
  G-8’s development
  
  The G-8, which is truly a coordinating mechanism among Western powers, has become an effective way to conduct dialogues among the eight Western powers. In November 1975, leaders of France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain gathered in Rambouillet in France to discuss issues of currency, trade, energy and raw materials, and their relationship with developing nations. In essence, the capitalist powers coordinated economically. They reached an agreement on foreign exchange at the conference. This indicated that these powers began to change their attitudes toward such areas from conflict to cooperation.
  Evidence shows that this conference caused an economic rebound and further development in Western countries, which suggested that such a mechanism should be continued.
  This outcome also led to the seven-nation summit held the next year after Canada joined. The summit, promoted by then U.S. President Jimmy Carter, was systematically established and rotated eventually to each of the seven countries. During its development, the topics they discussed expanded from economic to political issues, then diversified further to cover a wealth of important international issues. After the end of the Cold War, the summit realized an important expansion by absorbing Russia, changing from a “club of rich countries” to a “club of world powers.”
  During its development, the G-8 has formed a defined structure, with the G-8 summit at the core. G-8 leaders’ representatives or personal assistants meet several times a year to prepare the summit. Their conferences have changed from previously open meetings to closed ones. Meanwhile, leaders of the G-8 also established a complex group consisting of several dozen task forces, working teams and expert panels to carry out agreements reached by its leaders and resolve summit differences. At the same time various other ministerial meetings also make direct preparations for the G-8 summit. Most ministerial meetings are held regularly and some are held particularly for some emerging issues.   The G-8 showed great concern for its relationship with developing countries and the relationship between the North and the South from the very beginning. With the development of globalization, the deepening interdependence between various countries and the rise of developing countries, the G-8 realized that its internal coordination was not sufficient. It needed to strengthen its contacts and dialogue with developing countries, especially with developing powers. Now, when the G-8 summit was held, it actively invited important developing countries for dialogue. The G-8 this year invited China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and the Republic of Congo. This further changes the G-8 from a “club of rich countries” to a “club of the world powers.” As a result, the G-8 is now--with more world powers--performing the function of global administration.
  
  Roles increase
  
  During the Cold War, the then G-7 played important roles in economic and political areas. G-7 members made joint efforts to cope with various economic problems facing them and promote economic development in Western countries through dialogue, coordination and cooperation. Politically, the G-7 summit strengthened the unity among them to contain the Soviet Union.
  After the Cold War, the G-7 changed into the G-8 and its roles also broadened into global administration. With the deepening of globalization, the G-8 has gradually become a center of administering and coordinating global issues beyond traditional economic, political and security issues. Now the group faces issues such as heavy debts caused by accelerated globalization, genetically modified food, the digital divide, global warming, energy security and epidemic prevention and control.
  Evidence shows that the G-8’s efforts are practicable, unique and important.
  Meanwhile, the G-8 makes other countries accept its ideas through its leadership, instead of increasing its membership.
  The G-8 also is becoming more aware that with their fast economic development, some developing countries, including China, are playing increasingly important roles in international political and economic affairs. Holding dialogues with leaders from these countries is in line with world developing trends and can help the international community to cope with challenges brought by globalization.
  Actually, the South-North cooperation is becoming increasingly important, as well as dialogue between the G-8 and developing countries, to effectively resolve important global problems. The “8+n” mode, which refers to the G-8 plus the developing countries the group engages, is more important than the G-8 itself and has become an important de facto part of the G-8 summit. The deepening and further development of this mode will not only help resolve important global problems, but also help in constructing world harmony.
  Most developing countries now look at the G-8 objectively and attach corresponding importance to its roles. Take China for example. The increasingly open and self-confident nation has a rather mature viewpoint on the G-8 and has found enough room for cooperation. China believes that the G-8, as a coordination mechanism of developed countries, plays important roles in political and economic world affairs. China and the G-8 are both important members of the international community. China is a developing country, which believes that developing countries and developed countries should be partners of equal cooperation to jointly cope with global challenges. Thus, China recently increased its contacts and strengthened its dialogue and cooperation with the G-8. According to China, this is in line with the interests of all sides and can help to maintain world peace, stability and development. The main goal for China in participating in the dialogue between the G-8 and developing countries is for active progress in international cooperation in related areas and making contributions in resolving global problems under the principles of equality and mutual benefit. China seeks common ground while acknowledging differences, employs pragmatism, and seeks win-win cooperation. China’s contact, dialogue and cooperation with the G-8 can help improve the coordination mechanism of the G-8 and help the G-8 play a better role in resolving global problems.   Undoubtedly, the G-8’s roles have increased and strengthened, but even so, it has its own limitations. The G-7 regarded itself as an organization of developed democracies for a long period of time and this deep-rooted idea has not changed after Russia joined the group. This not only gives the G-8 a sense of superiority, but also makes its members have parochial prejudice, which is harmful for the process of changing into a “club of the world powers” and prevents it from playing larger coordination roles worldwide.
  Meanwhile, the G-8 consists only of Western powers and lacks universal representation, thus is weak in terms of efficacy and validity of its global administration. Furthermore, the G-8 is not an international organization and therefore cannot adopt coercive measures. Thus, the implementation of agreements reached at the G-8 summit can barely be guaranteed.
  The G-8 should do more to conquer its own limitations, particularly its sectarian bias, in order to increase its roles in global administration. It should be more open to developing nations and attach greater importance to its dialogue with them before absorbing them as partners.