G-7 hits out at Beijing over trade tactics, situation in Xinjiang, HK

ELMAU CASTLE (Germany) • Group of Seven (G-7) leaders yesterday condemned China's "non-transparent and market-distorting" international trade practices in an end-of-summit statement that hit out directly at Beijing for the first time.

The closing communique, which followed a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps, came hours before the leaders join a larger group of their counterparts at a Nato summit in Madrid.

There, the 30-member alliance is also poised to toughen its stance against Beijing in an update of its "strategic concept".

The Chinese section of the G-7 communique, highlighted by the United States, referred to China's "non-transparent and market-distorting interventions" and other forms of economic and industrial directives.

The G-7 leaders committed to working together to ensure a level playing field for their businesses and workers and signalled that they would seek to "foster diversification and resilience to economic coercion, and reduce strategic dependencies" on China.

The communique further voiced serious disquiet about the situation in the East and South China seas and unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion. "We stress that there is no legal basis for China's expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea," it said.

It also said the G-7 was now "gravely concerned" - a term not used in its summit a year ago - about the human rights situation in China, urging Beijing to respect fundamental freedoms. The nations stressed that the situation in Tibet, and in Xinjiang, where they allege there is "forced labour", "is of major concern to us". China has denied all accusations of abuse.

The G-7 urged China to "honour its commitments" under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which Beijing agreed Hong Kong could keep some freedoms and autonomy for 50 years under a "one country, two systems" model.

It pressed Beijing to get Russia to withdraw from Ukraine immediately and unconditionally, citing a ruling by the International Court of Justice that Moscow suspend its military operation, and related United Nations General Assembly resolutions.

Western allies acknowledge that the biggest challenges, including climate change, cannot be solved without Beijing's cooperation.

Meanwhile, climate activists reacted with dismay to a G-7 decision, prompted partly by the energy crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine, to grant a host of stays and exceptions to climate protection goals the group had previously set itself.

The G-7 industrialised democracies allowed themselves leeway to continue using non-offset fossil fuel investments in "exceptional" circumstances, despite an earlier commitment to end public support for them by end-2022.

They also dropped a commitment to making half of all vehicles zero-emission by 2030, following pressure from Japan, replacing it with a vaguer promise to "significantly" increase their sales.

"G-7 leaders have cynically used the war in Ukraine as an excuse to take an enormous step back in tackling the climate crisis during this summit," said Ms Wiktoria Jedroszkowiak, 20, a Polish activist.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS