Exposed weaknesses

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is due to host the G7 Summit in Cornwall, southwest England, in June, is proposing a new D10 grouping of countries. This would comprise the G7 countries (the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, France and Italy) and also Australia, South Korea and India, who would be invited to join the new larger grouping.

Mario Cavolo, a leading China expert and CEO of the M Communications Group, believes that creating a D10 would only serve to make the West look weak.

"Moves such as a D10 gathering together and ganging up on China only shine a light on the already exposed weaknesses of these countries while also shining a light on how well China continues to forge ahead despite such efforts," he said.

Martin Jacques, an academic and author of When China Rules The World, said the D10 idea was driven by the so-called Five Eyes security grouping of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

"This is not a statement of strength, but rather weakness and retreat－a shrinking Anglo-Saxon faction. They share Anglo-Saxon roots, four were settler colonies, and English is a common (language) to all," he said.

"Politically and intellectually moribund, they are hanging on to the past. Their anti-China crusade is a lost cause. It is time for new thinking. The West must embrace the world as it is becoming, not as it was. Otherwise, it will only hasten its own decline."

Wang Huiyao, president and founder of the Center for China and Globalization, or CCG, an independent think tank based in Beijing, believes it will be difficult for D10 to get off the ground.

Having just taken part in the Munich Security Conference, Wang said the ideas underlying such a new grouping were "far from the mood" of that meeting.

"It is just based on Cold War ideology trying to use democracy as a dividing line, when that line in itself is far from clear. The old NATO and Warsaw Pact era has well and truly gone," he said.

"If there is to be a new grouping, the G7 should add both China and India and also bring back Russia. That would make far more sense."

Ross, from Renmin University, who used to be economic adviser to former mayor of London Ken Livingstone, agrees that to actually work, any new grouping must include China.

"The proposal by Britain is, in fact, an admission that the old grouping of the G7－that solely of the old advanced economies－is now too weak to be a deciding factor in world politics and economics. This was shown during the international financial crisis in 2008, after which the G20, to which China belongs, de facto replaced it."

Europe, in particular, seems reluctant to follow a containment strategy toward China. The European Union signed a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with China in December, and clearly sees the value of its commercial relationship with the country.