China summons Japanese ambassador over ‘smears’ at G7 summit

China’s deputy foreign minister summoned the Japanese ambassador to register an official protest over what the ministry called the “hype around China-related issues” at the G7 summit in Hiroshima over the weekend.

On Saturday, G7 leaders issued a communique that warned China over its “militarisation activities” in the Asia-Pacific region, but that also stated that the bloc wanted “constructive and stable relations” with Beijing, reports The Guardian.

The leaders of the Quad group – Australia, India, Japan and the US – also delivered a thinly veiled criticism of Beijing, calling for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain”.

“We strongly oppose destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,” the statement said, using diplomatic language that appeared to refer to China’s economic tactics to gain leverage over poorer countries and also its military expansion in the Pacific.

On Monday China’s deputy foreign minister, Sun Weidong, claimed Japan had collaborated with other countries at the summit through “activities and joint declarations … to smear and attack China, grossly interfering in China’s internal affairs”.

He said Japan’s actions were detrimental to China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, and that China is “strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes” them.

“Japan should correct its understanding of China, grasp strategic autonomy … and truly promote the stable development of bilateral relations with a constructive attitude,” Sun said.

Speaking on Sunday in Hiroshima, British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said China represented the world’s greatest challenge to security and prosperity, but that other leading economies should not decouple from it.

The statement from the G7 nations referred to “de-risking” rather than “de-coupling” from their relationship with China amid warnings from France that the summit should not be seen as being anti-Beijing.

However, Sunak went further than the summit statement in outlining the threat that China poses to the world.

“We will work together as the G7 and other countries make sure that we can de-risk ourselves and the vulnerability of supply chains that we have seen from China, take the steps necessary to protect ourselves against hostile investment and do so in a way that doesn’t damage each other,” he said on Sunday.

In response, the Chinese embassy in Britain issued a statement asking the UK government to stop slandering and smearing China to avoid further damage to China-UK relations.

In a statement on Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Britain said: “the relevant remarks by the British side are simply parroting words from others and constitute malicious slanders in disregard of the facts. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this.”