Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) have warned that China's increasingly assertive actions in the waters east of Taiwan threaten regional stability and freedom of navigation, in a joint declaration published late on Wednesday after their meeting in Paris, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters via WNCY

China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up activity off the island's east coast since June, with regular coast guard patrols, Reuters said. The G7 statement said China's increasingly assertive activities east of Taiwan "threaten regional stability, freedom of navigation and the safety of international shipping".

"We reaffirmed our opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo, particularly by force or coercion, or the threat thereof," the G7 ministers said in the declaration, according to Reuters.

China rejects the statement

China's foreign ministry said on Thursday that the G7 statement "disregards objective facts, crudely interferes in China's internal affairs, and maliciously slanders and smears China", Reuters reported. Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the statement "once again proves that the G7 is an ideological clique clinging to Cold War mentality and engaging in bloc politics". China recognises no claims of sovereignty by Taiwan.

Taiwan welcomes the G7 declaration

Taiwan's presidential office welcomed the G7 statement, saying peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region are core issues vital to global security and prosperity, Reuters reported. Officials in Taiwan, which rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, say they believe China is practising for a potential maritime blockade using overlapping military, paramilitary and civilian assets — a Taiwanese assessment reported by Reuters, not a G7 finding.

The declaration follows remarks on Tuesday by Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo, who said China is carrying out area-denial drills in the Western Pacific involving one of its aircraft carriers and other naval formations, after a reported rise in Chinese activities.

Taiwan's defence minister described the Chinese carrier drills in the Western Pacific earlier this week. Read the earlier report on the area-denial drills

What happens next will depend on whether Chinese coast guard patrols east of Taiwan continue at the same pace and how Beijing and the G7 capitals carry this dispute into next week's APEC summit period. No new measures were announced in the declaration itself.