The G7 summit was riddled with “uncomfortable optics” for China, said Lyle J. Goldstein, an expert on China at Defense Priorities, a think tank in Washington. Chief among them was the hosting of the event by Japan, a power that China harbors deep-seated historical animosity toward. Chinese state media has lashed out at Tokyo this week, accusing it of doing the “United States’ bidding” and inflating the “China threat” so that it can amend its constitution to build up its military again for the first time since World War II.
Mr. Goldstein said China saw Japan at the G7 as “colluding with the U.S.” to “bring Europe into the Taiwan issue,” a move he likened to “waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
Mr. Goldstein, the expert at Defense Priorities, said that a senior Chinese expert on Russia told him during a talk in Beijing last week that from Beijing’s perspective, “if Russia loses, then the pressure on China will only multiply and become much more severe.”
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