G7 diplomats speak out on Taiwan as China ramps up military drills

The top diplomats from Group of Seven nations have reiterated “strong opposition” to attempts to change the status quo by force, including in the Taiwan Strait, a veiled swipe at Beijing as China ramps up military exercises around the self-ruled island.

During a meeting Monday in Paris, the G7 top diplomats underscored the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific and reaffirmed their “strong opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion, including in the East China Sea, the South China Sea, and across the Taiwan Strait,” according to a readout of the meeting released by Japan’s Foreign Ministry. 

Taiwan’s defense minister said Tuesday that China is carrying out “area denial” drills in the western Pacific involving its Liaoning aircraft carrier and other naval formations.

China has not formally announced any military drills in the area, but Taiwan’s national security chief wrote on X last week that more than 100 Chinese Navy and China Coast Guard vessels had been operating off Taiwan and in the Pacific and South China Seas. Taiwan’s military also saw a surge in military aircraft reported around the democratic island last week.

China has in the past staged area denial drills to China’s east as part of its large-scale joint military exercises. The Chinese military and coast guard’s actions in the area are widely seen as practice for preventing the U.S., Japan and other partners from coming to Taiwan’s aid in the event of a clash with China.

The Institute for the Study of War think tank said in a report Friday that the Chinese military may have been conducting “a major, unannounced military exercise that simulates surrounding and isolating Taiwan” in recent weeks in a bid to demonstrate that it can cut off the island from the air and sea during a conflict.

China’s “decision to not announce a major exercise departs from recent precedent and may aim to create the impression that the PLA can isolate Taiwan at will,” the report said, using the acronym for China’s People’s Liberation Army. Beijing, it added, normally announces and names major military exercises targeted against Taiwan and has done so for the last four such exercises.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its own and has vowed to bring the island under its control, by force if necessary.

At the G7 meeting of top diplomats, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also raised the issue of economic security challenges facing the Indo-Pacific, though China was not directly singled out. 

Still, G7 diplomats pledged to work together to address nonmarket policies and practices and economic coercion, including arbitrary export restrictions, another implicit criticism of Beijing.

Sino-Japanese ties remain at their lowest point in decades after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told parliament more than a year ago that the Self-Defense Forces could be deployed under the right to collective self-defense in “worst-case” scenarios, such as a Chinese naval blockade of Taiwan, which the prime minister said could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan.

China responded to her remarks by reimposing a ban on seafood exports, restricting Japan-bound exports of rare-earth minerals and dual-use items, while warning tourists not to visit Japan.

Also Monday, Motegi held a bilateral meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with the two discussing “common challenges” and agreeing to “further advance security cooperation” to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance.

Late last month, the U.S. and Japanese defense chiefs announced plans to bolster defense industrial cooperation, including a plan to expand production of SM-3 Block IIA missiles and establish a final assembly and check-out facility for advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAMs) in Japan.