G7 foreign ministers have warned that China’s increasingly assertive actions in the waters east of Taiwan threaten regional stability and freedom of navigation, in the group’s strongest unified expression of concern about Beijing’s activity around the island. The G7 Taiwan warning was published late on Wednesday after a meeting in Paris.
China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up activity off the island’s east coast since June with regular coast guard patrols. The joint declaration said China’s increasingly assertive activities in the waters east of Taiwan “threaten regional stability, freedom of navigation and the safety of international shipping”. The ministers added: “We reaffirmed our opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo, particularly by force or coercion, or the threat thereof.”
Strongest Unified Statement So Far
While the United States, Britain, France and Germany have all previously expressed concern about China’s actions off Taiwan’s east coast, the G7 statement is the strongest unified expression of concern to date about the Chinese activities, according to Reuters. The ministers posed for the family photograph during the G7 foreign ministers summit at the Quai d’Orsay in Paris on November 10, before the declaration was published.
Taiwan’s Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Tuesday that China is carrying out “area denial” drills in the Western Pacific involving one of its aircraft carriers and other naval formations, following a reported rise in Chinese activities. The drills add to months of coast guard patrols and military exercises that Taipei says are designed to test its defences and wear down its forces.
Beijing Hits Back at G7
China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that the G7 statement “disregards objective facts … crudely interferes in China’s internal affairs, and maliciously slanders and smears China.” Beijing recognises no claims of sovereignty by Taiwan and has repeatedly said the island’s future is an internal matter. China did not immediately respond to an initial request for comment when the declaration was published.
The warning comes at a sensitive moment for regional security, with the United States and its allies stepping up naval transits and exercises in the Western Pacific. Any escalation around Taiwan would carry serious consequences for global shipping and the semiconductor supply chain, given the island’s central role in chip manufacturing. For more on regional security tensions, see our report on NATO jets scrambled as drones triggered alerts in Lithuania and Latvia and US tankers pulled from RAF Mildenhall over a new Iran threat.
