Hiroshima, Japan – The Group of Seven has called for “constructive” ties with China and insisted it does not seek to block the country’s development, even while taking aim at Beijing’s rights record and territorial claims.
In their communique released on Saturday, the G7 leaders struck a balance between seeking cooperation in areas like climate change and pushing back against Beijing’s increasingly assertive posture, which has upended decades-old assumptions about the global balance of power.
The leaders of the club of wealthy democracies said they did not wish to decouple from China but recognised that economic resilience required “de-risking and diversifying”.
“Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development,” the G7 leaders said.
“A growing China that plays by international rules would be of global interest.”
But the G7 — made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — said it would respond to challenges posed by China’s “non-market policies and practices”, counter “malign practices”, and “foster resilience to economic coercion”.
The G7 also expressed concerns about Beijing’s claims in the East and South China Seas, as well as its crackdowns on freedoms in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang.
The leaders of the G7 also called on China to press Russia to end its war in Ukraine and for the peaceful resolution of tensions over Taiwan, which Beijing has threatened to reunify with the Chinese mainland by force if necessary.
Yuichi Hosoya, a professor of international politics at Keio University in Tokyo, described the statement as taking a “very balanced approached.”
“This de-risking, and not decoupling, approach is the EU’s preferred approach, and it meant that they did not take the American ‘decoupling’ policy towards China,” Hosoya told Al Jazeera.
“Even though they used some critical words towards some of China’s positions and policies, I feel they created a conclusion that can be accepted by most of the leading powers in this conference.”
China’s foreign ministry late on Saturday rejected the statement as an example of interference in its internal affairs and said it had complained to Japan, the G7 host.
Michele Geraci, a finance professor at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China who served as a senior official in Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development, said the G7 had “lost touch with the reality” and should worry more about the future of its own economies and societies.
“I would say that China’s military is becoming more aggressive once they build 750 military bases in the Mediterranean or Caribbean Sea,” Geraci told Al Jazeera, referring to the US military’s global footprint.
“In the meantime, G7 leaders are simply looking for an external enemy to blame and hide our own problems.”
Along with Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s growing power and influence have been a major focus of attention at the three-day summit in Hiroshima, Japan, that ends on Sunday.
The gathering comes amid growing calls among Western officials for coordinated action to counter Beijing, particularly in the US, where President Joe Biden has made competition with Beijing a central pillar of his foreign policy.
Earlier this year, Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for the formation of an “economic NATO” to respond to economic coercion by countries such as China.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said the G7 would develop tools “to deter and defend against China’s economic intimidation and retaliation”.
Japan and European members, however, have been seen as more cautious than the US to antagonise Beijing due to their heavy dependence on Chinese trade, raising questions about how far such measures might go.
In their communique, the G7 leaders said they would launch a “Coordination Platform on Economic Coercion” to respond to economic coercion.
The initiative would increase the G7’s “collective assessment, preparedness, deterrence and response to economic coercion” and “further promote cooperation with partners beyond the G7”, the statement said, without elaborating further.
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
