英语早读丨New accusations seen as sign of G7's failure

People rally in a protest against the Group of Seven (G7) summit inHiroshima, Japan, May 20, 2023. [Photo/Agencies]

Bloc needs to 'reflect on its behavior and changecourse', Foreign Ministry says

The freshaccusations made by the Group of Seven wealthy member nations against Chinacannot conceal their failures in advancing global governance as well as theG7's declining influence and obsession with fanning bloc confrontation,officials and experts said.

As the annual G7Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, concluded over the weekend, observers warned thatthe grouping also outlined the United States-led Western countries' plans tofurther stir up the Asia-Pacific region politically, economically andmilitarily.

China was a hottopic in a series of documents adopted by the summit, such as the G7 HiroshimaLeaders' Communique.

Through thesedocuments, the grouping hyped up the Taiwan Strait situation and madeaccusations regarding the East China Sea, the South China Sea, the Hong KongSpecial Administrative Region, the Xin­jiang Uygur and Tibet autonomous regionsand China's nuclear power.

Beijing stronglydeplores and opposes this and "has made serious demarches to the summit'shost Japan and other parties concerned", according to the ForeignMinistry.

"The G7used issues concerning China to smear and attack China and brazenly interferein China's internal affairs," said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson onSaturday.

The spokespersonsaid that the G7 claimed it was "promoting a peaceful, stable andprosperous world", but "what it does is hinder international peace,undermine regional stability and curb other countries' development".

Noting that theG7 continues to emphasize cross-Strait peace without mentioning the need tooppose "Taiwan independence", the spokesperson said that this"constitutes connivance and support for 'Taiwan independence' forces, andwill only result in having a serious impact on cross-Strait peace andstability".

The East ChinaSea and the South China Sea have remained stable overall, and relevantcountries need to "stop using maritime issues to drive a wedge betweenregional countries and incite bloc confrontation", the spokesperson said.

"The G7needs to reflect on its behavior and change course", as the world does notaccept the G7-dominated Western rules that seek to divide the world based onideologies and values, the spokesperson said.

Su Xiaohui, anassociate research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, saidthe G7's latest comments and documents show that "it is still failing inits role of tackling issues facing the whole of humanity, such as globalgovernance".

"AlthoughWashington has underscored increasing the G7's influence, it has not respondedto concerns of the international community, and the grouping has ended up as akey tool for advancing US-driven strategic competition," she said.

"Routinely,the G7 Summit is intended to discuss economic issues, but (Japan), as the hostthis year, has linked economic topics to politics and security, and thesummit's documents involve a lot of content related to politics," saidYang Bojiang, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute ofJapanese Studies.

"By doingso, Tokyo is marching in lockstep with Washington in viewing China as acompetitor and a threat," he said.

Yang noted thatJapan also invited eight countries — most of them from the Asia-Pacific region— to attend the summit's expanded meeting this year in an attempt to encouragethem to take sides and join the US-led coercion against China.

"Prioritizing'dealing with China' is actually inviting external forces to further interferein Asia-Pacific affairs and seeking collective hegemony. This will only add totension and confrontation in this region and sabotage peace and stabilityhere," he said.

On severaloccasions this year, the G7 also made claims about "economiccoercion" that allude to China.

A spokespersonfor the Chinese embassy in Japan said on Saturday that "in reality, it isthe US itself that is engaged in economic coercion", and the US "hasso far applied sanctions arbitrarily to the detriment of nearly half of theworld's population, and even G7 members such as Japan are not immune".

Observers notedthat in parallel with the G7 Hiroshima gathering, the China-Central Asia Summitwas held in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, on Thursday and Friday.

The fruitfulXi'an summit issued seven bilateral and multilateral documents and witnessedthe signing of over 100 cooperative documents, State Councilor and ForeignMinister Qin Gang told reporters on Sunday.

"Ourcooperation is not directed at any third party, nor is it subject to a thirdparty, we do not engage in closed, exclusive 'small circles', and we opposebloc politics and Cold War confrontation," he said.

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记者：张陨璧

播报：Samantha Stimer

音频编辑：万月英

原文链接：

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202305/21/WS646a383ea310b6054fad436e.html

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