- State-backed Chinese mouthpiece Global Times called the G7 an “anti-China workshop.”
- Beijing summoned Japan’s envoy and criticized Britain in a fiery response to statements issued at the weekend G7 summit in Hiroshima.
- Chinese Vice Foreign Minister said that Japan is violating the basic principles of international law and the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan,” referring to the China-Japan Joint Statement of 1972.
- China’s embassy in Britain urged London to stop slandering China after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Beijing represents the world’s greatest challenge to security and prosperity.
- U.S. President Joe Biden said he expected a thaw in frosty relations with China “very shortly”.
State-backed Chinese mouthpiece Global Times called the G7 an “anti-China workshop” after Beijing summoned Japan’s envoy and criticized Britain in a fiery response to statements issued at the weekend G7 summit in Hiroshima.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister summoned the Japanese ambassador to register protests over “hype around China-related issues”, a ministry statement said. He said Japan collaborated with the other countries at the G7 summit “to smear and attack China, grossly interfering in China’s internal affairs, violating the basic principles of international law and the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan,” referring to the China-Japan Joint Statement of 1972.
A joint communique issued, singled out China on issues from Taiwan and nuclear arms, to economic coercion and human rights abuses, underscoring the wide-ranging tensions between Beijing and the group of rich countries which includes the United States. “The US is pushing hard to weave an anti-China net in the Western world,” Global Times said in an editorial titled ‘G7 has descended into an anti-China workshop’.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said it firmly opposed the G7 statement and it had summoned Japan’s ambassador to China as part of a pointed protest to the summit host. Russia, a close ally of China that was also called out in the G7 statement over its invasion of Ukraine, said the summit was an “incubator” for anti-Russian and anti-Chinese hysteria.
Separately, China’s embassy in Britain urged London to stop slandering China, after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Beijing represents the world’s greatest challenge to security and prosperity.
As well as taking issue with G7 comments on Taiwan, which China claims as its own and says is an internal issue, Beijing also accused the United States and its allies of double standards over comments about the nuclear build-up and the use of economic leverage.
Despite Beijing’s reaction, U.S. President Joe Biden said he expected a thaw in frosty relations with China “very shortly”. Japan’s ambassador to China said it was “natural” for the G7 to refer to issues of common concern as it has done in the past and will continue to do so in the future as long as China does not change its behavior, according to a readout.
Among the G7, Tokyo has also voiced some of the strongest concerns about China’s muscular rhetoric around Taiwan, the democratic island that sits to the southwest of Japan. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary said that the country’s policy toward China has been consistent that it will insist on matters that are needed and urge responsible behavior while taking steps to address concerns and cooperate on common issues.
(With inputs from agencies)
