(TibetanReview.net, Apr19’23) – Although an active, albeit subversive, presence in the UN human rights system, China bristles at any critical discussion of its record, especially in regions like Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong, calling it interference in its internal affairs. In the latest of its angry reactions, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin has on Apr 18 condemned the G-7 ministers’ joint communiqué regarding problems in Taiwan, the East and South China Seas and Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, addressing a regular press conference held in Beijing.
Wang has alleged that the 21-page joint communiqué issued Apr 18 by the G-7 meeting of the foreign ministers at the end of its three-day meeting in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, “maliciously smeared China, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs and created antagonism and division in the international community.”
“Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Xizang are purely China’s internal affairs. No foreign forces may interfere in them in any way or under any pretext,” he has demanded.
The participants in the meeting included the foreign ministers of the world’s richest economies, namely, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, besides the High Representative of the European Union.
In its section on China, the communiqué said, among many other things: “We continue to raise our concerns with China on reported human rights violations and abuses, including in Xinjiang and Tibet. We reiterate our concerns over the continued erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy rights and freedoms, and call on China to act in accordance with its international commitments and legal obligations, including those enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.”
However, China’s official globaltimes.cn Apr 19 also noted, “Some Western media such as CNN and Bloomberg noted that the rhetoric on China in the communiqué appears much softer than the heated rhetoric often heard in Washington as the G7 is seeking to present an image of ‘unity’.”
Nevertheless, “the club of the richest economies is allowing itself to be ‘Natolized’ by Washington as a geopolitical tool of the US,” alleged China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Apr 19.
Still, the globaltimes.cn report quoted Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, as saying, “Inside the G7, countries like France and Germany seek to engage with China while countries such as the US and Japan seek confrontation.”