Western powers are once again sparking anger in Beijing following warnings from the G7 and NATO

For more than six weeks, the Taiwanese military asked where the Chinese planes had gone.

During May only four entered the island air defense identification zone. In the first half of this month, they were admitted for only four days and no activity for nine days. This is as much as 20 raids per month compared to the previous model.

But on June 15, U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders issued a statement condemning China’s “expressed ambitions and assertive behavior.” 20 PLA ​​fighters, four nuclear bombs and four other military aircraft entered Taiwan’s ADIZ. It was the largest number of aircraft sent to the area by the People’s Liberation Army. Some of them also circled the southern tip of the island and the east coast before retreating

A senior Taiwanese government official said Beijing could not interfere in the aftermath of the NATO communiqué – and a G7 summit a document released a few days earlier – criticized Beijing’s activities on the Taiwan Strait and its crackdown on the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement.

“Beijing wanted to prove wrong in denouncing the Chinese threat theory in the West,” the official said, citing a reduction in military activity in May and early June. “But of course they couldn’t go on like that. When Taiwan gets some support, they have to react. ”

According to Chinese analysts, Beijing had only shown the decision, the Biden administration accelerated its efforts to build a “united front” against China at the G7 and NATO summits – President Xi Jinping’s administration has long feared but never realized When Donald Trump was president of the United States.

China should. . . don’t get too distracted by the hostility against China. In the long run, China will have a bigger economy than the US – no one can change that. Time is on the side of China

“The G7 and NATO have been distorted on anti-China platforms,” said Victor Gao, a former Chinese diplomat at the China and Globalization Center, a Beijing-sponsored think-tank center. “There are more and more forces in China, if the US wants to express China as a basic enemy, then those who believe that the US should be the enemy.”

Beijing responded to criticism of the G7’s policy in Hong Kong with a show of strength in the territory, the only one that recently closed. public memory The 1989 massacre on Chinese soil in Tiananmen Square. In the early hours of Thursday, police arrested senior workers in support of democracy Apple Daily newspaper alleged “collision with a foreign country or with foreign elements endangering national security.”

A senior official in the security division of the Hong Kong police force said the arrests were linked in part to more than 30 articles published in the newspaper.

Beijing’s actions around Taiwan and Hong Kong were in line with harsh rhetoric. Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry and one of the most Chinese frank diplomacy, said the G7 communiqué “revealed the ill-intentions of the US and other countries to create antagonism and spread inequality with China.”

“The US is sick,” Zhao added. “The G7 needs to take its pulse and give it medicine.”

These comments were in contrast to Xi’s latest instructions, saying last month that official propaganda “should set the right tone, be open and confident but also be humble, humble and strive to create a credible, loving and respectful image of China.”

Xi, however, also noted that China has been involved in the international “fight against public opinion”. “Powerful forces against China in Western society want to attack and discredit China,” China’s ambassador to Paris, Lu Shaye, said in a state media interview last week. “We must fight to protect our interests. Our sovereign security and development interests are inviolable.”

Yun Sun, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the Stimson Center in Washington, said such rhetoric reflects growing alarm in the Xi administration. “Beijing’s real concern is that it is forming a united front [and] It includes many elements that China does not want to see, such as Taiwan, maritime security and human rights, “Sun said.” That is why we are seeing unusually harsh responses in Beijing’s G7 and NATO. “

“Germany, France and other EU countries are hesitant to confront China [openly as] In the U.S., “added Shi Yinhong, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, and advises the State Council on foreign policy issues.” But now they are closer to the U.S. when it comes to dealing with China. “

Some Chinese officials and analysts say Beijing will continue to respond forcefully when Beijing criticizes Taiwan, Hong Kong or other “basic interests,” which will not prevent cooperation with the United States on climate change or other issues. global tax reform.

Fu Ying, the former Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, said at a recent seminar that the Biden administration wanted to “prevent China from moving forward to replace the United States.” But, he added, “we hope so [technological and economic] it can be managed to ensure competitiveness on the right track, encouraging each other to seek common development and improvement ”.

Beijing “should be firm in its principles, but not be too distracted by its hostility to China,” Gao said. “In the long run, China will have a bigger economy than the US – no one can change that. Time is on China’s side.”

Additional report by Xinning Liu in Beijing