G7 wants ‘constructive’ ties with China, calls rights record

Hiroshima, Japan – The Group of Seven has called for “constructive” ties with China and insisted it does not seek to block the country’s development, even as it takes aim at Beijing’s record of rights and territorial claims.

In their statement released on Saturday, the G7 leaders struck a balance between seeking cooperation in areas such as climate change and rejecting Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance, which has upended decades-old assumptions about the global balance of power.

The leaders of the club of rich democracies said they did not want to disassociate themselves from China, but acknowledged that economic resilience required “derisking and diversifying.”

“Our political approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development,” the G7 leaders said.

“A growing China abiding by international rules would be in the global interest.”

But the G7, made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, said it would respond to challenges posed by China’s “non-market policies and practices,” counter “malign practices.” and “build resilience to economic coercion.”

The G7 also expressed concern over Beijing’s claims in the East and South China seas, as well as its crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang.

The G7 leaders also called on China to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine and to peacefully resolve tensions over Taiwan, which Beijing has threatened to forcibly reunify with mainland China if necessary.

Yuichi Hosoya, a professor of international politics at Keio University in Tokyo, described the statement as a “very balanced approach.”

“This risk-off approach, rather than decoupling, is the EU’s preferred approach, and it meant that they did not adopt the US ‘decoupling’ policy towards China,” Hosoya told Al Jazeera.

“Although they used some critical words towards some of China’s positions and policies, I think they created a conclusion that can be accepted by most of the major powers at this conference.”

China’s foreign ministry on Saturday night rejected the statement as an example of interference in its internal affairs and said it had complained to Japan, the G7 host.

Michele Geraci, a finance professor at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China who served as a senior official at Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development, said the G7 had “lost touch with reality” and should be more concerned about the future of their own economies and societies. .

“I would say that China’s military is becoming more aggressive once they build 750 military bases in the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea,” Geraci told Al Jazeera, referring to the global footprint of the US military.

“Meanwhile, the G7 leaders are simply looking for an external enemy to blame and hide our own problems.”

Along with Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s growing power and influence have been a major focus of attention at the three-day summit in Hiroshima, Japan, which ends on Sunday.

The meeting comes amid growing calls among Western officials for coordinated action to counter Beijing, particularly in the US, where President Joe Biden has made competition with Beijing a central pillar of his foreign policy.

Earlier this year, Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for the formation of an “economic NATO” to respond to economic coercion from countries like China.

On Tuesday, the US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, said the G7 would develop tools “to deter and defend against economic bullying and retaliation from China.”

However, Japan and European members have been seen to be more cautious than the US in antagonizing Beijing due to its heavy reliance on Chinese trade, raising questions about how far such measures could go.

In their statement, the G7 leaders said they would launch a “Coordination Platform on Economic Coercion” to respond to economic coercion.

The initiative would increase the G7’s “collective assessment, preparedness, deterrence and response to economic coercion” and “further promote cooperation with partners beyond the G7,” the statement said, without elaborating.