Global Courant 2023-05-21 08:14:21
Hiroshima, Japan – The Group of Seven has called for “constructive” ties with China, stressing that it is not trying to block the country’s development, even as it targets Beijing’s track record and territorial claims.
In their communiqué released on Saturday, G7 leaders struck a balance between seeking cooperation on areas such as climate change and pushing back 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 disengage from China, but acknowledged that economic resilience requires “risk reduction and diversification”.
“Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China, nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development,” said the G7 leaders.
“A growing China playing by international rules would be of 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 the challenges of China’s “non-market policies and practices”, counter “malicious practices” and ” promote resilience to economic coercion”.
The G7 also expressed concern over Beijing’s claims in the East and South China Seas, as well as the crackdown on liberties in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang.
G7 leaders also called on China to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine and to peacefully resolve tensions over Taiwan, which Beijing has threatened to reunite by force if necessary.
Yuichi Hosoya, a professor of international politics at Keio University in Tokyo, described the statement as a “very balanced approach”.
“This approach of risk reduction and not decoupling is the EU’s preferred approach, and it meant they were not following the US ‘decoupling’ policy towards China,” Hosoya told Al Jazeera.
“While they used some critical words about some of China’s positions and policies, I feel they reached a conclusion that can be accepted by most of the leading powers in this conference.”
China’s foreign ministry late on Saturday dismissed the statement as an example of interference in its internal affairs, saying it had lodged a complaint with Japan, the G7 host.
Michele Geraci, a professor of finance at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China who was a senior civil servant at Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development, said the G7 had “lost touch with reality” and should be more concerned about the future of its own economies and societies.
“I would say the Chinese military will become more aggressive once they build 750 military bases in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean,” Geraci told Al Jazeera, referring to the US military’s global footprint.
“In the meantime, G7 leaders are simply looking for an outside enemy to blame and hide for our own problems.”
Along with Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s growing power and influence was a major focus at the three-day summit in Hiroshima, Japan, which ends Sunday.
The meeting comes amid growing calls among Western officials for concerted 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 by countries like China.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said the G7 would develop tools “to deter and defend China’s economic intimidation and retaliation”.
However, Japan and European members are seen as more cautious than the US in antagonizing Beijing because of their heavy dependence on Chinese trade, raising questions about how far such measures could go.
In their communique, G7 leaders said they would launch a “Coordination Platform for Economic Coercion” to respond to economic coercion.
The initiative would enhance the G7’s “collective assessment, preparedness, deterrence and response to economic coercion” and “further promote cooperation with partners outside the G7,” the statement said, without elaborating.
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