China's Foreign Ministry has reacted sharply to a communique issued at the G7 Hiroshima summit.
The G7 Hiroshima Leaders' Communique was released on Saturday. It refers, among other issues, to the G7 nations' concerns over China's recent growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The communique states, "We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas. We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion."
The communique continues, "We reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait... We call for a peaceful resolution of Cross-Strait issues."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson issued remarks on Saturday night.
The statement said, "Despite China's serious concerns, the G7 used issues concerning China to smear and attack China and brazenly interfere in China's internal affairs. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this."
Regarding Taiwan, the statement said, "Taiwan is China's Taiwan.... No one should underestimate the determination, resolve and capability of the Chinese people in safeguarding China's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
The statement added that, "China has made serious demarches to the summit's host Japan and other parties concerned."
It said, "Gone are the days when a handful of Western countries can just willfully meddle in other countries' internal affairs and manipulate global affairs."
The statement said, "We urge G7 members to catch up with the trend of the times.... stop ganging up to form exclusive blocs, stop containing and bludgeoning other countries, stop creating and stoking bloc confrontation and get back to the right path of dialogue and cooperation."