Practices to form cliques, follow bloc politics will never succeed

The Group of Seven (G7) recently wrapped up a summit and issued a joint communique in which it made irresponsible and false statements on issues related to China’s Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, viciously slandered China, and interfered in China’s domestic affairs.

Such act runs counter to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the trend of the times of peace, development and win-win cooperation. It exposes the bad intentions of the United States and a few other countries to deliberately create antagonism and widen differences.

When the world is still challenged by the rampant COVID-19 pandemic, sluggish economic recovery and climate change, the United States and a few other countries have failed to deliver outstanding governance, and are trapped in an anti-China paranoia. The international society is very much disappointed by the G7 summit this time, and has expressed deep concerns and dissatisfaction over the practice of the United States and a few other countries.

Spanish newspaper Rebelión said in an article that the G7 was only working to maintain its hegemony and never cared about how the world could be made better. Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown even called the G7 summit an “unforgiveable moral failure.”

The United States and a few other countries did everything they could to slander China and build an image of unity during the G7 summit, but as American media said, few countries responded with passion. The reason is simple: lies are lies.

More and more far-sighted personages from the international community have realized that the implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong and measures to improve the special administrative region’s electoral system are helpful for the long-term stability of the “one country, two systems” principle and have been supported by most of Hong Kong citizens. The Chinese government’s Xinjiang policies are also supported by people of all ethnic groups in the autonomous region as the policies have further consolidated social stability, ethnic unity and people’s livelihood there. On Taiwan question, the one-China principle is a common aspiration of the international society, and any remarks and practices that support the “Taiwan independence” forces would never be allowed by international justice.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently expressed his support for China on issues related to Xinjiang and Taiwan, which reflected the mainstream opinion of the international society.

The noises made by the G7 summit fully exposed the dangerous intentions of the United States and a few other countries to form cliques, follow bloc politics, and oppress other development modes guided by different ideologies.

There is only one system and one order in the world: the international system with the UN at the core and the international order based on international law. There is only one set of rules: the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. At present, the international society faces an urgent need to reinforce solidarity and cooperation and practice genuine multilateralism under the banner of the UN.

The United States and a few other countries, being addicted to confrontation games, would only annoy the international society and be opposed by it. Their unilateral practices would only undermine international rules and orders.

In recent years, the necessity of existence of the G7 has been constantly questioned, due to a drop of its international presence, as well as its improper mentality on how it views the world. This point has been once again indicated by the G7 summit this time.

Volker Tschapke, honorary president of the Prussian Society, pointed out that from a global point of view, the G7 is a forum of the old times, and these countries can’t solve the problems of the world on behalf of the global population.

Gulf News of the United Arab Emirates recently posted an article titled Why an Outdated G7 is No Longer Relevant. It stressed that “good versus evil” will not cut it in this age, adding that it will only make the G7 meeting another ceremonial photo-op event.

The polarization of the world and the democratization of international relations are an irresistible trend of the times. Today’s world is no longer a place where a country, or a group of countries can decide everything. Any practice to form cliques or follow bloc politics runs counter to the trend of the times and will never succeed.

The United States and a few other countries shall find a remedy to their mental illness, get rid of Cold War mentality, abandon the attempt to recover their descending influence by establishing imaginary enemies, and do something that is really helpful for the international society.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)