By Oyintari Ben
Chinese mouthpiece supported by the government Global Times referred to the G7 as an “anti-China workshop” on Monday, the day after Beijing recalled Japan’s representative and slammed Britain in a furious rebuttal to remarks made at the group’s meeting in Hiroshima.
In pronouncements made on Saturday, the Group of Seven (G7) singled out China on topics such as Taiwan, nuclear weapons, economic pressure, and human rights violations, highlighting the long-standing tensions between Beijing and wealthy nations, including the United States.
“The U.S. is pushing hard to weave an anti-China net in the Western world,” the Global Times editorial titled “G7 has descended into an anti-China workshop” stated on Monday.
There is an overt desire for conflict between the camps and the harsh involvement in and smearing of China’s internal affairs.
The G7 statement, which includes Japan, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy, was strongly opposed by Beijing’s foreign ministry, which said late Sunday, that it had summoned Japan’s ambassador to China in a direct protest to the summit host.
Russia, a close associate of China that was also criticised in the G7 statement for its involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, claimed the meeting served as an “incubator” for frenzy against China and Russia.
Separately, China’s embassy in Britain pleaded with London to cease defaming Beijing after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed that Beijing poses the biggest threat to global security and prosperity.
China was named 20 times in the main statement of the G7 leaders, which is an increase from 14 occurrences in 2022 and the most in recent years.
A professor from the City University of Hong Kong named Wang Jiangyu claimed, “China’s reaction this time is quite intense.”
“The G7 expressed numerous worries (about China) in an unprecedented manner. According to him, China views these topics as crucial to its interests and wholly internal matters that the G7 should not discuss.
Beijing criticised G7 remarks on Taiwan, the democratic island that China claims as its own. It charged that the United States and its allies had applied different standards to remarks about a nuclear build-up and the use of economic leverage.
Despite Beijing’s response, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that he anticipated a “very swift” thawing of tense relations with China.
