G7 has patent on hypocrisy and economic coercion

This is an editorial from China Daily.

Even though they didn't mention it by name, the G7 trade ministers were widely perceived to be referring to China when they called for the removal of import curbs on Japanese food products.

Meeting in Sakai, Osaka, on the weekend, they "strongly call(ed) for the immediate repeal of any such measures that unnecessarily restrict trade, including the newly introduced import restrictions on Japanese food products".

China is the main economy to have introduced restrictions on imports of Japanese food products. By banning imports of seafood from Japan, China is seeking to protect its own 1.4 billion people.

All the oceans are physically connected, while the inland lakes, rivers, and ponds are also linked by underground water channels and the vapor-water cycle. That means the world will pay a heavy price for Japan releasing the nuclear-contaminated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

Rather than seeking to safeguard the health of the 8 billion people on Earth, the other G7 members have closed ranks with Japan in order to strengthen their "united front" against China.

The other six members of the G7 club are tied to Japan's vendor cart of shame. On Wednesday, five staff members of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings received treatment after having touched some nuclear-contaminated water, which means the six countries cannot plead ignorance of the dangers.

The G7 club of Western countries is good at justifying itself. The trade ministers' disingenuous claim that the G7 is opposing "economic coercion" being a prime example of this. To quote the remark of a spokesman for the Chinese embassy to Japan, the G7 has a patent on economic coercion

The Japanese government has pressed ahead with the discharge of the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, despite the grave concerns expressed by many countries and experts. Japan is passing the risks of the nuclear-contaminated water to the world. The countries have every right to respond to that and take concrete actions to protect public health.

It is the G7 that has been threatening the stability of global supply chains by setting import barriers to developing economies' products and curbing exports of their own semiconductor technologies.

It's the G7 countries that forget the responsibility they bear for their historical greenhouse gas emissions and disregard their obligations to help the people of developing countries address the risks of climate change.

It's the same group of seven countries that is now putting its geopolitical calculations ahead of people's well-being by supporting Japan for the sake of their geopolitical game against China.