G7 leaders accused China of using “economic coercion” while issuing a subtly worded warning to the country.
On Saturday, the group demanded that China, a rising powerhouse, “play by international rules” and accused Beijing of using trade to intimidate other countries.
This week, a three-day summit with the heads of state of the US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, and Canada took place in Hiroshima, Japan.
The countries discussed the needto ‘reduce excessive dependences (on China) in their critical supply chains’.
However, their joint statement went on to stress that the G7’s policies are ‘not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development’.
Leaders added that they still wanted to work on ‘constructive and stable’ relations.
China condemned the G7 for its comments, saying it felt ‘strong dissatisfaction’ with the allegations made against it.
The foreign ministry said: ‘The G7 insisted on manipulating China-related issues, smearing and attacking China.’
The war in Ukraine took centre stage this year, with president Volodymyr Zelensky arriving on a French government plane, after a stopover in Saudi Arabia.
It was unclear whether the Ukrainian president was attending the summit until the last minute.
He rushed to join in meetings which had already started and met his fellow world leaders, including prime minister Rishi Sunak who greeted him with: ‘You made it!’
On Friday, the G7 promised to ‘starve’ Russia of resources needed for its war in Ukraine but the details of how they plan to do this beyond existing sanctions are unclear.
US President Joe Biden told allies he will allow Ukrainian pilots to be trained on American-made F-16 fighter jets.
This prompted Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko to issue a warning to the west.
He told the Russian state news agency Tass: ‘We can see that Western countries continue to stick to an escalation scenario, which carries enormous risks for them.
‘In any case, we will take it into account when making plans. We have all the necessary means to achieve our goals.’