G7 slammed for Cold War mentality
Group makes improper remarks on HK, Xinjiang, Taiwan, raises Asia-Pacific tension
China urged the G7 to stop attacking and smearing the country, and interfering in its internal affairs in any form, after the group released a communique making accusations about Beijing.
At a news briefing on June 29, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian criticized G7 nations for exploiting the communique to clamor over the narrative of democracy versus authoritarianism in a bid to stoke confrontation.
The G7 leaders wrapped up their summit in Germany on June 28 with a communique referring to China 14 times and making irresponsible remarks on China’s internal affairs including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.
Zhao denounced the G7 for engaging in bloc politics underpinned by interests of small circles, saying the group clings to a Cold War mentality and ideological biases.
Noting G7 countries only make up around 10 percent of the world’s population, Zhao said, “They have no right to represent the world or to think their values and standards should apply to the world.”
He said, “Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs.” And added that the democratic rights and freedom legitimately enjoyed by the people of Hong Kong have been fully guaranteed since Hong Kong’s return to the motherland in 1997.
Saying these countries themselves have a poor track record of human rights, Zhao added they are not qualified to assume the role of human rights “lecturers”, still less to use human rights as a tool to meddle in the domestic affairs of other countries.
“The hype by these countries on issues related to Xinjiang and the Tibet autonomous region will only make the world see clearly their hegemonic nature and hypocrisy,” Zhao added.
On the Taiwan question, Zhao pointed out moves by the Taiwan authorities to promote “Taiwan independence” separatist activities, and the actions by the United States and a handful of Western countries trying to “use Taiwan to contain China” are the biggest threats to peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.
Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said at a news conference in Beijing, “To achieve their aims, Western countries have turned a blind eye to provocations made by Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party authority and ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces to realize ‘independence’,” Ma said.
“Instead, they accuse the mainland of being the destroyer of peace and stability in the Straits,” Ma said. “This is a complete distortion of facts, and a confusion of right and wrong.”
As the G7 nations enjoy most of the dividends of globalization, Zhao said they bear special responsibilities to advance globalization and global economic growth. Instead, the G7 is “keen to create divisions and confrontations”, showing “no sense of responsibility or morality”.
In New York on June 28, China’s ambassador to the United Nations reiterated that the “long-outdated Cold War script must never be reenacted in the Asia-Pacific”, and conflict “must not be allowed to happen in the Asia-Pacific”.
“We firmly oppose certain elements clamoring for NATO’s involvement in the Asia-Pacific, or an Asia-Pacific version of NATO on the back of military alliances,” Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the UN, told a UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine.
Asia-Pacific countries “share the appreciation for the hard-won peace and prosperity, and the wish to focus on mutually beneficial cooperation in pursuit of common development and revitalization,” said Zhang.
“China pays close attention to NATO’s strategic adjustment and is deeply concerned about the policy implications of the so-called ‘Strategic Concept,’” said Zhang.
The US on June 24 announced a new alliance including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the UK to “boost economic and security ties with the Pacific Island nations”, the White House said in a statement.
The NATO summit in Spain, from June 28 to June 30, included for the first time the top leaders of four Asia-Pacific countries, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and also for the first time the bloc identified China in its new strategic concept.
Certain NATO leaders lately have painted other countries as a threat, Zhang said. “But the fact is it’s NATO itself that has made trouble in different parts of the world.
“We urge NATO to learn its lessons and not to use the Ukraine crisis as an excuse to stoke worldwide bloc confrontation or a new Cold War, and not to look for imaginary enemies in the Asia-Pacific or artificially create contradictions and divisions,” the envoy said.
“Attempts to weaponize the world economy and to coerce other countries into taking sides” will make the world “even less secure”, he continued.
“A blind faith in the position of strength, the expansion of military alliance and the pursuit of one’s own security at the expense of the insecurity of other countries will inevitably lead to security dilemmas,” said Zhang.