G7 urges China to refrain from threats and use of force

Münster, Germany (November 4) (Reuters) – The Group of Seven nations on Friday urged China to refrain from “threats, coercion, intimidation or the use of force,” while expressing its goal to cooperate where possible to address global challenges including security, global health and climate. .

The moderate-tongued statement, which concluded two days of foreign ministers’ meetings of the world’s seven wealthiest nations, also stressed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

A senior US State Department official said earlier that the G7 increasingly agreed on the need for a coordinated response to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitions following a ruling Communist Party congress, but the statement made no mention of a common goal.

The meeting coincided with a one-day visit by German Chancellor Olaf Schulz to China, which raised concern that Germany would continue to prioritize economic relations with its largest trading partner over security and strategic considerations.

This could lead to divisions among Western allies who have sought to adopt a tougher stance toward China in recent years.

“We remind China of the need to … refrain from threats, coercion, intimidation or the use of force,” the G7 statement said. “We are firmly opposed to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion,” he added.

The G7 said it remained “gravely concerned about the situation in and around the East and South China Seas” after China earlier this year staged war games near Taiwan.

China claims the autonomous island as its territory and has never given up the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Moreover, the G7 said it would continue to raise its concerns with China about the human rights violations and abuses it had reported, including in Xinjiang and Tibet, and about the “continued erosion of Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms and independence.”

The State Department official told reporters that there has been an “increasing convergence of views on what China’s ultimate strategy will be, both domestically and globally, over the past two and a half years.”

“Coming out of the Party Congress, I think there is ultimately a growing recognition of what President Xi’s ambitions are and the need for a coordinated response to that,” he said, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“This is something I think will be the focus of this group as we head to the presidency of Japan next year,” he noted, referring to Japan’s assumption of the rotating presidency of the Group of Seven from Germany at the beginning of next year.

Sino-Japanese relations have long been plagued by the dispute over a group of small, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, a legacy of Japan’s World War II aggression and regional rivalry.

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

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, warned earlier today that China should not be placed in the same category as Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February.

“It is clear that China … has become much more assertive and much more self-reliant,” Borrell told reporters.

“But at the moment, many member countries have a strong economic relationship with China, and I don’t think we can put China and Russia on the same level.”

The G7 said in its statement that it aims to “constructive cooperation with China, wherever possible and in our interest” on global issues such as health and climate change.

(Additional reporting by Humira Pamuk, Sarah Marsh and Sabine Siebold); Additional reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Jonathan Otis

Our criteria: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.