G-7 will stand up to ‘any coercion’ over Taiwan Strait, U.S. official says

Reuters

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations agreed to oppose any “coercion” or efforts by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to exert control in the Taiwan Strait, a senior United States State Department official said.

Concerns about the PRC’s increasingly aggressive stance on Taiwan and, more broadly, in the Indo-Pacific region were in sharp focus during the ministers’ three days of talks in mid-April 2023 in Karuizawa, Japan.

“The message is the same across the G-7: that we want to work with China in those areas where China is prepared to work with us,” the U.S. official said. “We are certainly going to stand up against any coercion, any market manipulation, any efforts to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”

The ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S want to demonstrate a unified front. (Pictured: Two Chinese Military helicopters fly past a People’s Liberation Army Navy tugboat near Pingtan island, the closest point to Taiwan, in China’s southeast Fujian province in April 2023.)

Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and has increasingly threatened to seize it by force.

Japan said the PRC aircraft carrier Shandong conducted operations with jet fighters and helicopters in mid-April 2023. Chinese state media said the People’s Liberation Army Navy carried out combat training around Taiwan.

The PRC is increasingly trying to replace international rules with “its own rules,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in Karuizawa.

“Many of our partners in the region feel more and more that China increasingly wants to exchange the existing common binding international rules with its own rules,” said Baerbock, who met with her Chinese counterpart in Beijing in early April 2023.

IMAGE CREDIT: AFP/GETTY IMAGES