G7 statement ‘slanders and attacks China’, says foreign ministry spokesman – Firstpost

China hit back on Monday after G7 leaders warned Beijing against supplying weapons components to Russia, calling the G7’s final declaration “full of arrogance, prejudice and lies.”

At the meeting of G7 heads of state and government in Italy last week, the deterioration of trade relations with China and tensions over Ukraine and the South China Sea were at the centre of their discussions.

In the statement released at the end of the summit on Friday, China was criticized on many of these issues.

It accused Beijing of supplying dual-use goods to Russia to support the war effort in Ukraine.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the statement “slandered and attacked China.”

It has “rehashed clichés that have no factual basis, no legal basis and no moral justification and are full of arrogance, prejudice and lies,” he said at a press conference.

The Group of Seven – consisting of the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Canada, Britain and Italy – had also targeted what they viewed as “dangerous” Chinese incursions in the South China Sea.

Concerns are growing about a military escalation between China and its neighbors, and according to the Chinese coast guard, Philippine and Chinese ships collided near the Second Thomas Reef on Monday.

“We oppose China’s militarization, coercion and intimidation in the South China Sea,” the G7 statement said, using clearer language than at last year’s summit in Japan.

Political tool

In the same week that the European Union warned against imposing new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, the G7 also referred to what it called “harmful overcapacity” in its statement.

The EU, which participates in the G7 summits as an unofficial eighth partner, and others argue that China’s generous subsidies, especially in the green energy sector, risk flooding the world market with cheap goods.

“We express our concern about China’s continued focus on industry and its comprehensive non-market policies,” the G7 statement said. The statement mentioned “global spillovers, market distortions and harmful overcapacity” in several sectors.

China has repeatedly rejected the concerns.

On Monday, Lin said the G7’s “speculations” about overcapacity “completely deviate from objective facts and economic laws, create pretexts for protectionism, and also undermine efforts to achieve a global transition to a green and low-carbon economy and cooperation on climate change.”

The G7 “does not represent the international community,” he said, accusing it of being “a political instrument to secure the hegemony of the United States and the West.”

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