Western powers rekindle Beijing’s anger after G7 and NATO warnings

For more than six weeks, Taiwanese military officers wondered where the Chinese fighter jets had gone.

During the month of May, only four entered the island air defense identification zone. In the first half of this month, there were raids in just four days and a nine-day stretch with no activity. This compares to a previous pattern of up to 20 raids per month.

But on June 15, a day after U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders issued a statement condemning China’s “declared ambitions and assertive behavior.” 20 PLA ​​fighter jets, four nuclear-capable bombers and four additional military aircraft entered Taiwan’s ADIZ. It was the largest number of aircraft sent by the People’s Liberation Army to the area, with some also skirting the southern tip and east coast of the island before returning.

A senior Taiwanese government official said Beijing could not contain itself after the NATO statement – and G7 summit statement issued a few days earlier – criticized Beijing’s activities in the Taiwan Strait and its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

“Beijing wanted to show that those in the West who are accused of publicizing a theory of China’s threat are wrong,” the official said, referring to the reduction in military activity in May and early June. “But of course they could not continue. Once Taiwan gets some support, it has to react. ”

Chinese analysts said Beijing had no choice but to show its resolution after the Biden administration stepped up its efforts to build a “united front” against China at G7 and NATO summits, which the administration of President Xi Jinping had long feared, but that it never materialized when Donald Trump was president of the United States.

China should do it. . . don’t get too distracted by the hostility against China. In the long run, China will have a larger economy than the United States; no one can change it. The weather is on the Chinese side

“The G7 and NATO have been distorted on anti-China platforms,” said Victor Gao, a former Chinese diplomat who is now at the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-backed think tank. “There are more and more forces in China that believe that if the US wants to distinguish China as its fundamental enemy, let the US have an enemy.”

Beijing also responded to G7 criticism of its policies in Hong Kong with a show of strength in the territory, where it recently faded the only public commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on Chinese soil. In the early hours of Thursday, police arrested senior pro-democracy officials Apple Daily for alleged “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”

A senior official in the national security division of the Hong Kong police force later said the arrests were partly related to more than 30 articles published in the newspaper.

Beijing’s actions around Taiwan and Hong Kong were matched by scathing rhetoric. Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the foreign ministry and one of the most Chinese frank diplomats, said the G7 statement “exposed the ill-intentions of the United States and other countries to create antagonism and widen differences with China.”

“The US is sick,” Zhao added. “The G7 should take the pulse and prescribe medication.”

These comments seemed to contradict Xi’s recent instructions, which he said last month that official propaganda should “set the right tone, be open and confident, but also modest, humble and strive to create a credible, adorable and respectable of China “.

Xi, however, also noted that China participated in a “public opinion struggle” internationally. “The powerful anti-Chinese forces of Western society want to attack and discredit China,” Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to Paris, said last week in an interview with state media. “We must fight to safeguard our own interests. Our sovereign security and development interests are inviolable. “

Yun Sun, China’s foreign policy expert at the Stimson Center in Washington, said the rhetoric reflected growing alarm in the Xi administration. “There is a real concern in Beijing that a united front is forming [and] it includes many elements that China does not want to see, such as Taiwan, maritime security and human rights, “Sun said.” That’s why we see some unusually harsh responses from Beijing to the G7 and NATO. “

“Germany, France and other EU countries are reluctant to face China [openly as] in the U.S., “added Shi Yinhong, a professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, which advises the State Council on foreign policy issues.” But now they are closer to the United States when it comes to dealing with China. “

Some Chinese officials and analysts argue that while Beijing will continue to respond forcefully when criticized about Taiwan, Hong Kong or other “core interests,” this does not preclude cooperation with the U.S. on other issues such as climate change or global tax reform.

Fu Ying, a former Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, said at a recent seminar that the Biden administration wanted to “prevent China from moving forward to replace the US.” But, he added, “we are waiting [technological and economic] competition can be managed to make sure it is on a positive path, pushing each other to seek joint development and improvement ”.

Beijing “should stand firm on issues of principle but not be too distracted by hostility against China,” Gao said. “In the long run, China will have a bigger economy than the US; no one can change that. Time is on China’s side.”

Additional reports of Xinning Liu in Beijing