People rally in a protest against the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 21, 2023. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

Edited by TANG Zhexiao

The Group of Seven (G7) criticized China of "economic coercion" in a communique of the G7 summit held in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 19-21, planning to take steps to use punitive trade practices for political goals.

The group, which is made up of the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada, said its approaches are not designed to harm China nor thwart its economic progress and development. However, the U.S. is already doing this with its ban on exports of chips and chip technology to China, which Japan and the Netherlands have joined. The G7 is making clear such efforts would not only continue, but be ramped up, despite Beijing's protestations, according to BBC.

The U.S. often accuses other countries of using great power status, coercive policies and economic coercion to pressure other countries into submission and engage in coercive diplomacy. The fact is, the U.S. is the very origin of coercive diplomacy, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a regular press conference on May 19.

It has resorted to all kinds of political, economic, sci-tech and other measures as tools for coercive diplomacy to curb and bludgeon countries around the world for selfish interest.

In recent years, the U.S. has targeted its coercive measures on the semiconductor industry.

By enacting the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, the U.S. government forbids semiconductor companies that receive federal financial aid from making substantive expansion in China, and forces its allies into imposing export restrictions on China, while seeking to split up the global chips industrial and supply chains.

According to the America's Coercive Diplomacy and Its Harm released recently, the U.S. uses state power to suppress China's high-tech enterprises and even intimidates countries into not cooperating with Chinese 5G suppliers.

Apart from putting more than 1,000 Chinese companies including ZTE, Huawei and DJI on various sanctions lists, the country uses national security as an excuse to clamp down on Chinese social media apps such as TikTok and WeChat.

In targeting Chinese tech companies and apps, the U.S. is behaving like a bully, said Debra Ruh, CEO and Founder of of Ruh Global IMPACT.

Not even U.S. allies have been spared from such ruthless coercion. Companies such as Toshiba from Japan, Siemens from Germany and Alstom from France, are all its victims.

To maintain U.S. dominance in the semiconductor industry, it "extorts" confidential data from many chip companies worldwide. In September 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a notice requiring companies in the semiconductor supply chain to provide relevant information "voluntarily" within 45 days, including 26 core items of data such as inventory, production capacity, supply cycle and customer information.

Senior U.S. officials have even intimidated countries such as Cyprus, demanding that they can not cooperate with Chinese 5G suppliers, or the consequences would be serious.

The G7 makes high-sounding claims about "promoting a peaceful, stable and prosperous world," but what it does is hindering international peace, undermining regional stability and curbing other countries' development.

China condemns coercion and bullying and it has always taken a clear-cut stand against hegemony, unilateralism and coercive diplomacy, said Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The G7 should adapt to the prevailing trend of openness and inclusiveness in today's world and stop carrying out coercive diplomacy or building small, exclusive circles. Those who engage in coercion, sanctions, bullying, suppressing other countries and bringing chaos to the world, will eventually only harm themselves.