When world’s major economic powers gathered at a French chateau in 1975 to address a faltering global economy, one giant was already missing from the table: China. That first gathering, which laid the groundwork for the annual Group of Seven (G7) meetings of wealthy industrialized nations, would have been unrecognizable to today’s observers. Back then, China under revolutionary leader Mao Zedong was far from the global economic superpower it is today, and geopolitical tensions kept it out of the room from the start.
Mao’s open support for communist forces in Vietnam, which had defeated both French and American military interventions, made any Chinese invitation all but impossible. The initial Rambouillet summit brought together six nations, and the bloc eventually expanded to seven with Canada’s inclusion, forming an exclusive club of like-minded democratic nations bound by shared political values.
More than 48 years later, as current U.S. President Donald Trump gathers with fellow G7 leaders once again on French soil, China’s absence from the summit looks increasingly anachronistic. Today, China is an undisputed global economic giant whose influence ripples through every corner of international affairs, and its exclusion from a forum focused on global economic governance strikes many observers as increasingly untenable.
By any economic measure, China has long earned a seat at the table. Since Mao’s death, China has transformed from a largely agrarian, closed economy into the world’s second largest overall economy, outstripping the combined GDP of every G7 member except the United States. Leading G7 scholar John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto, compares the current situation to hosting a World Cup without Brazil: it is simply incomplete without one of the most influential players in the global game. Kirton argues unequivocally that both the G7 and the wider world would benefit from granting China membership.
Yet a core unwritten rule of the G7 has stood in the way of that outcome for decades: membership is reserved for nations committed to open democratic governance, individual liberty and shared societal progress. Under Mao’s regime, China suffered massive humanitarian crises including deadly famines and widespread political upheaval that left millions dead, and it failed to meet the bloc’s political criteria by any measure.
Today, China remains the most pressing topic of discussion for G7 leaders even without a seat at the table. It dominates global trade with record-breaking current account surpluses, controls a large share of the global supply of critical rare earth minerals essential to green technology and advanced manufacturing, has spurred anxiety among rival nations through its rapid technological and military expansion, and is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. All of this makes China the unavoidable “elephant in the room” at this year’s summit, held in the French alpine resort of Evian-les-Bains.
French President Emmanuel Macron has specifically carved out space on the summit agenda to address how G7 nations can rebalance trade ties with China, amid growing fears that surging Chinese exports threaten to undercut and damage industrial sectors across G7 member states. Ironically, experts note that rising tensions over China could serve as an unexpected unifying force for the bloc, even amid deep existing divisions between Trump and other G7 leaders.
For its part, Beijing has long criticized the G7’s exclusive structure, dismissing the bloc as an outdated Cold War relic that frames China as a systemic threat rather than a constructive global partner. At the same time, Chinese officials recognize the G7 remains a powerful concentration of combined economic, technological and military influence that cannot be ignored.
Critics and analysts, however, warn that granting China membership would risk unraveling the G7’s internal cohesion. China’s authoritarian political system, fundamentally divergent national interests, and starkly contrasting positions on geopolitical flashpoints from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Iran’s nuclear program put it at direct odds with the bloc’s democratic members. Some analysts warn China could act as a “Trojan horse” within the bloc, leveraging economic ties to persuade individual members to pursue special concessions that split the group’s collective unity.
The G7’s experience with Russia offers a clear cautionary tale for leaders considering expanding membership. Russia was admitted to the bloc in 1998, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, when leaders hoped to integrate the country into the Western-led liberal order. But after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the bloc voted to suspend Russia’s membership permanently. That experience has cemented a consensus among current G7 leaders that expanding the bloc to include non-democratic major powers carries severe and unpredictable risks.