Chinese state media disparages G7 summit, questions US claims to hegemony

Chinese media also downplayed the G7 countries' decision to donate 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries, calling it "too little and too late"

The heads of states at the G7 summit pose for a photo together in Cornwall, England, on Saturday. (Yonhap News)

China’s state-run media gave major coverage to the G7 summit that took place in Cornwall, in England. They paid particular attention to plans to counter China, including the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative that the US proposed at the beginning of the summit.

Xinhua News said Sunday that the Americans had brought up claims of forced labor in Xinjiang during the second day of the G7 summit, on Saturday.

Xinhua stated that “the US plans to bring up allegations about forced labor in Xinjiang during the summit and ask the G7 countries to publicly criticize [China about that],” citing reports by the Washington Post and other foreign media.

“The US asserts that forced labor is an insult to human dignity and that it dramatically illustrates the problem of unfair competition in the Chinese economy,” Xinhua went on to say.

There was also heavy coverage of the B3W initiative that the White House announced to kick off the summit.

“The US’s Build Back Better World proposal is a global infrastructure plan aimed at countering China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The proposal is part of the US’ plan to call on the G7 countries to begin strategic competition with China,” the Guancha Syndicate said.

“Some countries have repeatedly mentioned the ‘China issue’ from the first day of the summit,” China Youth Daily said Saturday, while providing detailed coverage to various demonstrations and protests held around the summit venue.

“Various protesters criticized the G7 countries for being all talk and no action in the areas of climate change, environmental change, social justice, and fair distribution of vaccines and for not taking meaningful steps to deal with global challenges,” the publication said.

The Chinese media also responded skeptically to the declaration that “the US is back.”

“Biden sought to portray a traditional American president and reassure allies, which made the summit more congenial than it had been under Trump,” the Beijing News said.

But the newspaper added, “Despite Biden’s emphasis on the restoration of Atlantic alliances, he didn’t seem able to completely reassure European countries’ concerns that American politics is just in an interlude between Trump’s first and second terms.”

Chinese media were also clearly determined to downplay the G7 countries’ decision to donate 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries. “That’s too little and too late to deal with the greatest public threat that humanity has faced in a century,” one media outlet said.

Chinese media also covered German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement in a press conference that the climate issue can’t be resolved unless China takes part.

By Jung In-hwan, Beijing correspondent

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