The G7’s foreign ministers 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. The statement is the group’s strongest unified expression of concern to date about Chinese activity around the island.
“China’s increasingly assertive activities in the waters east of Taiwan threaten regional stability, freedom of navigation and the safety of international shipping,” the ministers said, stressing the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. “We reaffirmed our opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo, particularly by force or coercion, or the threat thereof.”
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. 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.
After the Chinese coast guard’s latest patrol off the east coast last month, Taiwan said Beijing was harassing shipping and trying to exert what it called a fictional jurisdiction. Taipei regards the waters off its east coast as critical to wartime supply routes from allies in the event of a blockade or conflict.
Taiwan’s defence minister, Wellington Koo, said on Tuesday that China was carrying out “area denial” drills in the Western Pacific involving one of its aircraft carriers and other naval formations, following a reported rise in Chinese activity. China’s military also operates around Taiwan on a daily basis.
The United States, Britain, France and Germany had each previously expressed concern about Chinese actions off Taiwan’s east coast, but the joint G7 declaration goes further than any of those individual warnings. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, although it says it would prefer “peaceful reunification”. Its foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The account of the declaration in this report rests on a single wire report; the full text of the joint statement has not yet been independently checked.
Sources: Reuters — “G7 foreign ministers say China’s actions east of Taiwan threaten stability”, https://www.reuters.com/world/china/g7-foreign-ministers-say-chinas-actions-east-taiwan-threaten-stability-2026-11-12/
