China’s Global Times yesterday called the G7 an “anti-China workshop,” a day after Beijing summoned Japan’s envoy and berated Britain in a fiery response to statements issued at the group’s summit in Hiroshima.
G7 declarations issued on Saturday singled out China on issues including Taiwan, nuclear arms, economic coercion and human rights abuses, underscoring the wide-ranging tensions between Beijing and the group that includes the US.
“The US is pushing hard to weave an anti-China net in the Western world,” the Global Times said in an editorial titled “G7 has descended into an anti-China workshop.”
“This is not just a matter of brutal interference in China’s internal affairs and smearing China, but also an undisguised urge for confrontation between the camps,” it said.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it firmly opposed the statement by the G7 — which also includes Japan, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy — and late on Sunday said that it had summoned the Japanese ambassador to China in 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.
The main G7 leaders’ communique mentioned China 20 times, up from 14 mentions last year.
“China’s reaction this time is quite intense,” City University of Hong Kong law professor Wang Jiangyu (王江雨) said. “The G7 mentioned many concerns [over China] in an unprecedented way. China views these issues as its core interests that are entirely its internal affairs which are not for the G7 to wag their tongues about.”
As well as taking issue with G7 comments on Taiwan, Beijing also accused the US and its allies of double standards over comments about a nuclear buildup and the use of economic leverage.
Despite Beijing’s reaction, US President Joe Biden said he expected a thaw in frosty relations with China “very shortly.”
However, analysts see no sign of any immediate easing of tensions, especially given Beijing’s rapid and sharp rebuttal.
“Beijing’s reaction [especially the early timing of its release] underlines that tensions in the region are already quite high and likely to increase further,” said Moritz Rudolf, fellow at Yale University’s Paul Tsai China Center.
China’s decision to summon Japan’s ambassador underlined the intensity of its anger, analysts said.
Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong (孫衛東) summoned the ambassador to register protests over “hype around China-related issues,” the ministry said in a statement.
Sun said Japan collaborated with the other members 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.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
RSS