G7 countries are increasingly aware of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ultimate ambitions and the need for a coordinated response, a senior U.S. State Department official said, Reuters reported.

The talks between the top G7 diplomats coincided with a one-day visit to Beijing by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.  His visit sparked outrage in both Brussels and the United States. China has been Germany's largest trading partner for the past six years, with trade volumes reaching more than 245 billion euros in 2021.

"What we have seen over the past 18 months or so is an increasing convergence of the views on what China's ultimate strategy, both domestically but also globally, is," the State Department official told reporters. "I think coming out of the party congress, I think there's an increasing recognition of ultimately what President Xi's ambitions are and the need for a coordinated response to that."

Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he recognized China's growing assertiveness but warned that it should not be put in the same category as Russia.  

"It is clear that China is...becoming much more assertive, much more on a self-reliant course," Borrell told reporters.

"But for the time being, many member states have a strong economic relationship with China, and I don't think we can put China and Russia on the same level."

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said the partners agree that the G7 should increase coordination of the various strategies on China developed by individual countries. "That's something that I think will be a focus of this group as we head into Japan's presidency next year," he noted, referring to Japan taking over the G7's rotating presidency from Germany at the start of next year.

Japan's Sankei newspaper reported Friday that the Japanese and Chinese governments have begun planning a meeting between Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for mid-November.