While this country has borne the brunt of Chinese blowback over criticism of its human rights abuses, dubious trade practices, widespread intellectual property theft, territorial aggression and widespread espionage activities, it is clear the world's richest and most powerful nations are equally concerned.

While Australia, like India, South Korea and South Africa, was only present as a "guest", the invitation gave diplomats the chance to network with their counterparts and to discuss a wide range of issues face-to-face for the first time in over a year.

This included a valuable trilateral ministerial dialogue between Marise Payne and the foreign ministers of France and India. According to the joint statement issued in the wake of those talks, "the three countries shared mutual concerns regarding the strategic, security, economic, and environmental challenges in the Indo-Pacific region".

China, which would not have been surprised by the much more strongly worded G-7 communique given its fear of containment by the west, would have seen Australia's presence at the talks as a challenge and a threat.

It is probably no coincidence that Beijing's decision to scrap its economic dialogue with Australia was announced within hours of the G7's scathing criticism of its recent behaviour.

While very much a dead letter given there have been no ministerial discussions between Australia and China under the terms of the dialogue agreement for many years, the renunciation was clearly a response to Canberra's recent decision to scrap the Victorian Belt and Road agreement.

While China was not the only country to come in for serious criticism at the G7, with Russia, North Korea, Myanmar, Belarus and Iran all being named and shamed, that won't make the pills any easier to swallow.

The G7 is "deeply concerned" about human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, "gravely concerned" about China's activities in Hong Kong, concerned about unfair trade practices, critical of "cyber-enabled intellectual property theft" and "supportive of Taiwan's meaningful participation in World Health Organization forums and the World Health Assembly".

Not a single hot-button issue appears to have been overlooked.

China's options for responding to the G7 are significantly more limited than they are when it comes to Australia. Trade sanctions against the EU, the USA, and the UK for example would have a much more significant economic impact on China than those imposed on Australia.

With the G7 leaders summit to be held in Cornwall in June expected to maintain the strong position taken this week, it is now apparent Australia's unilateral call last year for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic was ill-advised.

No middle-ranking power can stand up to the growing Chinese hegemony on its own and, in coming decades, that is also likely to be true of the United States as well.

It has been known for centuries that "balances of power", such as the one created by Metternich and Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic Wars, are the most effective way to maintain the peace.

Given peace and prosperity within our region and across the globe must always be the overriding goal of Australian diplomacy, the government needs to be careful about getting ahead of the pack.

Peace through unity is the only way to counter a rising power whose policy is to divide and conquer.

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