China lashes out at G7 over statements on maritime security

From left, Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas attend the G7 foreign ministers meeting in La Malbaie, Canada

China has lashed out at accusations it is endangering maritime safety made by top diplomats from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies in a joint statement, saying the G7 members are “filled with arrogance, prejudice and malicious intentions.”

Even for China’s generally overheated diplomatic language, the statement issued Saturday was unusually vitriolic, although it did not threaten any retaliation.

In the Friday statement that sparked the Chinese response, the G7 said, “We condemn China’s illicit, provocative, coercive and dangerous actions that seek unilaterally to alter the status quo in such a way as to risk undermining the stability of regions, including through land reclaimations, and building of outposts, as well as their use for military purpose.”

“We reaffirm that our basic policies on Taiwan remain unchanged and emphasize the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to international security and prosperity,” the statement said, referring to the crucial waterway separating China from the self-governing island republic it claims as its own territory.

In the response issued through its embassy in Canada, where the two-day G7 meeting was held in La Malbaie, Quebec, China said the statement “repeated the same old rhetoric, ignored facts and China’s solemn position, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and blatantly smeared China.”

“The statements are filled with arrogance, prejudice and malicious intentions to suppress and attack China. China strongly deplores and opposes this and has lodged solemn representations with the Canadian side,” the statement said.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, through which passes around $5 trillion in global trade. It has dismissed and occasionally clashed with other countries that claim parts of the sea, especially the Philippines, a U.S. treaty partner.

China is not a member of the G7 but closely follows all comments and references to its international status made by international organizations or in foreign countries, responding to criticism with caustic language.

China has firmly rejected a U.N.-affiliated court’s ruling that invalidated most of its claims to the South China Sea and says its claim to Taiwan is non-negotiable, even if China has to use force against the island.

China routinely sends ships and warplanes into airspace and waters near Taiwan, built military bases on human-made islands in the South China Sea and recently staged surprise live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand for which it gave no advance notice.

Australia’s aviation authority said it learned of the drills just 30 minutes before they began, not from Beijing but from a pilot flying in the area, and 49 commercial flights were forced to alter their flight paths in response.

The G7 did not mention the drills in its statement.

“We share a growing concern at recent, unjustifiable efforts to restrict such freedom and to expand jurisdiction through use of force and other forms of coercion, including across the Taiwan Strait, and in the South China Sea, the Red Sea, and the Black Sea,” the G7 said.

China has the world’s largest navy, including three aircraft carriers, with a fourth on the way. It has a base in Sheikhdom of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa and consistently has expanded the range of the force.

CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, TAIPEI, MDT/AP