Sunday June 13th 2021
Infrastructure and human rights
China denies legitimation to the G7
In dealing with China, the seven major industrial nations are showing a new, hard line: Together they want to address human rights violations and push back Beijing’s influence in developing and emerging countries. China reacts with fundamental criticism of the G7 summit.
After the concentration of the G7 summit on a counterweight to the growing influence of China, the People’s Republic is on the offensive against the amalgamation of the large western industrial nations. “The days when global decisions were made by a small group of countries are long gone,” said a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London. All states, large or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are the same. “World political affairs should be settled through consultations of all countries,” emphasized the spokesman.
The G7 include the USA, France, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Japan. The informal association dates back to 1975. In the meantime, China has become the second largest economy after the USA. With its New Silk Road infrastructure initiative launched in 2013, the government in Beijing wants to boost trade within Asia as well as with Europe and Africa. Critics complain that they want to expand their influence on the global economy.
The G7 now want to counter the Silk Road project with a global infrastructure initiative. To this end, they are first setting up a working group that should also name the first projects, said Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Cornwall, UK. US officials had previously spoken of the issue of raising hundreds of billions of dollars in public and private funds for investments in developing countries.
According to participants, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for a uniform approach by the G7 towards China during the deliberations. “It’s not about confronting China,” said a US official. “But until now we haven’t offered a positive alternative that shows our values, our standards and our way of doing business.” There is agreement to also openly name human rights violations in China. Merkel also said that the final declaration would also address human rights violations in China, as requested by the United States, for example. and address human rights abuses in China in their final communique for the Cornwall Summit.
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