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Beijing and Moscow hit back at a G7 that saw them as a threat
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Meanwhile in China
CNN
Simone McCarthy
Beijing and Moscow hit back at a G7 that saw
them as a threat
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G7 leaders in Hiroshima
Beijing and Moscow lashed out against the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, where leaders of major democracies pledged new measures targeting Russia and spoke in one voice on their growing concerns over China.
China’s Foreign Ministry accused G7 leaders of “hindering international peace” and said the group needed to “reflect on its behavior and change course.”
Beijing had made “serious démarches” to host country Japan and “other parties” over their decision to “smear and attack” China, it said.
On Sunday, China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Hideo Tarumi over the summit's China-related discussions, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday slammed the G7 for indulging in their “own greatness” with an agenda that aimed to “deter” Russia and China.
Both Russia’s brutal assault on Ukraine and how to handle an increasingly assertive Beijing loomed over the three-day gathering of the world’s leading industrialized democracies in Japan – just across regional seas from both countries – where Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise, in-person appearance.
G7 member countries made the group’s most detailed articulation of a shared position on China to date – stressing the need to cooperate with the world’s second-largest economy, but also to counter its “malign practices” and “coercion” in a landmark joint communique Saturday.
Leaders also pledged new steps to choke off Russia’s ability to finance and fuel its war, and vowed in a dedicated statement to ramp up coordination on their economic security – a thinly veiled warning from members against what they see as the weaponization of trade from China, and also Russia.
The G7 agreements follow a hardening of attitudes on China in some European capitals, despite differing views on how to handle relations with the key economic partner, deemed by the US as “the most serious long-term challenge to the international order.”
Countering China’s ‘coercion’
Beijing’s retort later Saturday urged the G7 “not to become an accomplice” in American “economic coercion.”
“The massive unilateral sanctions and acts of ‘decoupling’ and disrupting industrial and supply chains make the US the real coercer that politicizes and weaponizes economic and trade relations,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The international community does not and will not accept the G7-dominated Western rules that seek to divide the world based on ideologies and values,” it continued.
G7 member countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union also joins as a non-country member.
A number of non-G7 leaders also attended the summit, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Albanese on Sunday said he has been concerned “for some time” over China’s actions, including its military activities in the South China Sea, and called for “transparency” by Beijing over the detention of Australian journalist Cheng Lei.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also on Sunday said China “presents the greatest risk to security and prosperity,” adding its behavior is “increasingly authoritarian at home and assertive abroad.”
China’s image in Europe has taken a severe hit over the past 15 months as leaders there have watched Chinese leader Xi Jinping tighten ties with Vladimir Putin, even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked a massive humanitarian crisis and the authoritarian Russian leader was accused of war crimes by an international court.
Beijing’s increased military aggression toward Taiwan – the self-ruling democracy the Chinese Communist Party claims as its territory but has never ruled – and economic penalties against Lithuania following a disagreement over Taiwan have also played a role in shifting sentiment.
Concern about such incidents was reflected in the G7 statement on ensuring economic security and countering economic coercion, which did not explicitly mention China.
The G7 leaders’ ability to sign onto a statement “so specifically directed at Beijing” would have been “hard to believe” two years ago, according to Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
“The bottom line is that the G7 has shown it will increasingly focus on China and will try to maintain a coordinated policy approach. That’s a major development,” he said.
Read the full story here.
—From CNN's Simone McCarthy
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Comedian Nigel Ng
Censors don't find ‘Uncle Roger’ funny
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A Malaysian comedian has been banned from China’s Twitter-like social media platform, days after he published clips from a live show predicting his skits about Beijing’s heavily censored politics and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would land him in trouble.
Nigel Ng, who performs under the persona “Uncle Roger,” last week posted a trailer of his new show on Twitter, in which he jokes about China’s surveillance state and begs the Chinese Communist Party not to “make him disappear.”
“Uncle Roger about to get canceled,” Ng wrote on Twitter last Tuesday alongside a clip of his show.
By Saturday his account on China’s highly censored Weibo platform had been barred from creating new posts. A message on the page said Ng was blocked “due to the violation of relevant laws and regulations,” but gave no further details.
Read the full story here.
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Business of China
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Beijing has banned Chinese companies working on key infrastructure projects from buying products from US semiconductor manufacturer Micron, in a major escalation of an ongoing battle between the world’s top two economies over access to crucial technology.
The Cyberspace Administration of China announced the decision on Sunday, saying the US chip maker had failed to pass a cybersecurity review.
“The review found that Micron’s products have relatively serious cybersecurity risks, which pose significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain and would affect national security,” the regulator said in a statement.
As a result, operators involved in domestic critical information infrastructure projects should stop purchasing products from Micron, it said.
The decision came seven weeks after the Chinese regulator kicked off a cybersecurity review of Micron’s products, in apparent retaliation against sanctions imposed by Washington and its allies on China’s chip sector.
Micron Technology is one of the largest memory chip makers in the United States. It derives more than 10% of its revenue from mainland China.
The company told CNN that it had received the regulator’s notice and was assessing its next steps.
“We look forward to continuing to engage in discussions with Chinese authorities,” it said in a statement.
The US Commerce Department said it firmly opposed the restrictions that “have no basis in fact,” according to Reuters.
“This action, along with recent raids and targeting of other American firms, is inconsistent with [China’s] assertions that it is opening its markets and committed to a transparent regulatory framework,” it was quoted as saying.
Since October 2022, Washington has imposed sweeping export curbs on advanced chips and chip-making equipment to China, in an attempt to cut off Beijing’s access to critical technology for military purposes.
In March, Japan and the Netherlands, both key US allies, also announced restrictions on overseas sales of chip-making technology to countries including China. China has strongly criticized the restrictions, labeling them “discriminatory containment” directed at the country.
Chips are at the center of Beijing’s bid to become a tech superpower. China has its own chip manufacturers, but they supply mostly low- to mid-end processors used in home appliances and electric vehicles.
The semiconductor battle is part of a growing divide between the United States and China. In recent years, relations between the two have reached their lowest level in decades.
Speaking at a news conference at the end of the Group of Seven summit in Japan on Sunday, US President Joe Biden said his country was "not looking to decouple from China.”
“We are looking to de-risk and diversify our relationship with China," he said.
Laura He, Reporter & Digital Producer, CNN Business
Laura He is a reporter and digital producer for CNN Business. She covers news about Asian business and markets from Hong Kong.
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Around the region
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Group of Seven talks culminated Sunday with a series of dramatic, in-person appeals from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he pressed leaders gathered in Japan to remain united against Russian aggression.
The United States and Papua New Guinea have signed a new bilateral defense cooperation agreement – a move that has sparked controversy in the Pacific Island nation and comes as Washington and China jostle for influence in the region.
A massive fire broke out at the historic Manila Central Post Office in the Philippine capital late Sunday, with teams of firefighters battling for more than seven hours through the night before it was finally brought under control.
A frozen dessert, called “white night” in Japanese, costs nearly $6,400 for a serving, officially making it the most expensive ice cream in the world, according to Guinness World Records.
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