2024-02-07 09:20:00
China criticizes the G7 after Meloni’s visit to Japan
In the center, lUS eagle pointing the finger at China. To his right is a gray wolf waving no with his hands. He represents Italy, reluctant to follow Washington in its anti-Chinese campaign. Then a dog (Japan) is depicted offering a drink to the other bystanders, a kangaroo (Australia), a hawk (Germany) and a rooster (France) listening in silence. And again a lion (United Kingdom) and a nutria (Canada), while from under the table a frog (Taiwan) tries to jump high enough to be seen.
It was the 2021 when this cartoon appeared in the Chinese media describing the G7 using the iconography of the “last supper”. The Chinese concept was already clear then: for Beijing the G7 was a structure based on a unipolar order, an old circle of supposed friends not in step with the times and with the new multipolar order. And therefore the anti-Chinese summit would be an artifice through which the United States and its (more or less) allies convince themselves that they can still control a world that has instead slipped out of their hands.
It is therefore not surprising that new criticisms of the G7 are coming from the Chinese media, e.gjust as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni concludes her trip to Japan for the official handover with the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in view of the Borgo Egnazia summit next June. “The G7 is becoming a US-led mechanism serving Washington’s hegemonic interests to contain its strategic competitors such as China and Russia”, we read in the Global Times, which underlines how the leaders of Japan and Italy, “discussed a series of topics, including the containment of China, during the talks on Monday in Tokyo”.
“Kishida and Meloni reconfirmed their cooperation in supporting Ukrainewhile exchanging opinions on how to deal with China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region”, continues the Chinese state tabloid, which does not fail to go into detail about Italy’s foreign policy. “In the past, Japan’s relations with Italy were further apart than those with other European countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany. But after Meloni came to power, the situation changed. Italy is trying to catch up with other EU members in developing ties with Japan.”
From the Chinese perspective, the G7 is increasingly a sort of “diplomatic arm” of Washington and the countries that are part of it would not have a high level of strategic autonomy. But there are some distinctions. “Other G7 members, such as France and Germanywhich are also core members of the EU, will maintain a more independent policy, as they share a common ideology with the United States but not many concrete interests,” we read in the Chinese press.
Relations between Italy and China
Li Haidong, a professor at the University of Foreign Affairs of China, said that, “although the United States is using the G7 mechanism to target China, it does not mean that all G7 members will blindly and unconditionally follow Washington’s every instruction This indicates that there is still plenty of room for China to develop ties and seek pragmatic cooperation with them separately.”
Cui Hongjian, professor of the Academy of Regional and Global Governance of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, also declared to the Global Times: “Italy still needs to cooperate with China and some problems that have recently emerged between China and Italy are caused by the right-wing government. If Italy were to return to being governed by one of the traditional political parties, there would be a chance for the two sides to mend ties.”
An interesting message, which comes later the Meloni government’s cautious exit from the Belt and Road Initiative, which however has not yet caused excessively polemical consequences between Rome and Beijing, where the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella is expected to visit by 2024. And perhaps, who knows, even Meloni herself.
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