The world leaders of G7 nations have expressed strong condemnation of China during the Summit. The leaders criticized China’s stances on several issues including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, trade bullying, economic monopoly and domestic interference.
As stated in a report, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that China poses greatest challenge to global security and prosperity and criticized China’s authoritarianism. The G7 leaders also clarified their stance to China on issues such as Indo-Pacific and Taiwan. But they mainly focused on ‘economic coercion’.
Economic coercion is the improper use of economic power to force someone to do something they don’t want to. According to G7 leaders, the coercion seeks to undermine the foreign and domestic policies and positions of G7 members as well as partners around the world.
They demanded ‘de-risking’ -policy introduced by Ursula von der Leyen during the summit. As per this policy, they would talk tougher in diplomacy, diversify trade sources and protect trade and technology.
The G7 nations also started a ‘coordination platform’ to counter the coercion and work with emerging economies. The G7 also has plans to improve digital infrastructure to deter hacking and technology stealing, as well as strengthen supply lines for vital products like semiconductors and minerals.
Additionally, they said that they will take strict action against ‘inappropriate transfers’ of technology acquired through research efforts. People accused of stealing tech secrets for China have been imprisoned in US and many other nations as they are concerned about industrial espionage.
At the same time, the G7 leaders were clear that they did not want to cut ties with China.
As a diplomatic effort, they avoided mentioning China in most of their talks regarding economic coercion. When they did discuss China, they did so in a tactful manner.
However, they also put pressure on the Chinese to cooperate, claiming that a G7 They also signalled their interest to keep communication lines with Beijing open.
China has responded to this harsh criticism. They filed a complaint with summit organizer Japan accusing the G7 of attacking China and tarnishing their reputation.
Additionally, they encouraged the other G7 nations to refrain from joining in economic coercion with the US and to stop banding together to form exclusive groups to attack other countries.
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