G7 leaders split over China stance

Restraint amid calls to condemn Russian invasion of Ukraine

Western leaders are split over how to manage China, as G7 leaders issued a plea for Xi Jinping to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have called for restraint in the West’s stance on the country, warning that comparing it to Russia would be a diplomatic mistake.

At the conclusion of the G7 conference in Bavaria yesterday, the German delegation reportedly blocked an attempt by other states to draw an equivalence between Russia and China in the leaders’ official communique.

The Nato summit this week is expected to end by labelling China a “systematic challenge”, toughening of the bloc’s rhetoric towards Beijing.

Many German companies rely heavily on exporting to Chinese markets and China has become the country’s biggest trading partner in recent years.

Mark Rutte and Alexander de Croo, the leaders of the Netherlands and Belgium, issued similar warnings, noting Western interests in China would not prosper if it were treated as a pariah state.

“I think the last thing we should do is turn our backs to China the way we are turning our backs to Russia,” de Croo said in Brussels on Tuesday.

Rutte said he was opposed to changing Western trading relations with China, telling Bloomberg cutting ties with China would not “help anyone in Hong Kong or the Uyghurs”.

But speaking yesterday on a flight to today’s Nato conference in Madrid, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was more bullish, suggesting the West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had set a precedent.

“I think it’s very important that countries around the world should not be able to . . . draw the conclusion that the world will simply stand idly by if boundaries are changed by force,” he told reporters.

“That’s one of the most important lessons that we pick up from Ukraine.”

The communique from G7 leaders criticised China’s record on human rights abuses, the South China Sea and its actions in Hong Kong.

China is yet to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine and it has been accused of helping to fund it by importing record quantities of Russian oil.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Andrey Denisov, the country’s ambassador to China, have claimed that “the Ukraine crisis has pushed Moscow and Beijing closer together”.

The communique called on Xi Xinping, the Chinese premier, to join the West in expressing its opposition to the Russian invasion.

“As Russia is waging its unjustifiable, unprovoked and illegal war against Ukraine, we call on China to press Russia to immediately comply with the legally binding order of the International Court of Justice of 16 March 2022 [to withdraw],” they said.

The leaders added China should pressurise Russia to “abide by the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly, stop its military aggression and immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine”.

China has avoided making public statements about the war.

However, Wang Yi, its foreign minister, said earlier this month “China is willing to work with the Russian side to continue to implement the important consensus of the two heads of state”.

The G7 statement also said China should reverse its recent crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong.

— Telegraph Group Ltd