Multilateral action needed to fight against economic coercion by China: Report

Tokyo [Japan], October 15 (ANI): China continues to ban all seafood imports from Japan, maintaining its de facto economic sanctions against the country as it intends to use the wastewater as a bargaining chip to gain the upper hand over Japan. The ban was imposed following the release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Nikkei Asia reported.
Beijing’s intention was clear stating that it wanted to use the wastewater as a bargaining chip to gain the upper hand over Japan. Moreover, Chinese leaders are making sure that Tokyo will not further side with the US over Taiwan and the restrictions of advanced technology transfer to China.
Last month, the Chinese delegation at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference, called the discharged water “nuclear-contaminated wastewater.”
However, no other major countries condemned Japan in such bold language during the meeting, according to Nikkei Asia.
Although, China was the only country with such attack on Japan, but the ban did pose a serious threat to its neighbor, as mainland China had accounted for nearly 20 per cent of Japanese seafood exports before the sanctions. Moreover, the ration for Scallops was roughly 50 per cent.
China has been using pressure linked to trade and investment to intimidate other nations and making them accept their demands, which is called economic coercion.
The Mercator Institute for China Studies, a German think tank, has identified more than 120 such cases by China since 2010.
Reportedly, Beijing has increased the frequency of economic coercion since the start of this decade. Australian Strategic Policy Institute cited 73 incidents of economic coercion between 2020 and 2022 in a report.
According to Nikkei Asia, the most often targeted nations was Australia, with 21 cases.
Dealing with China’s economic coercion was among the core topics at a conference hosted by Britain’s Ditchley Foundation in New York held from September 8 to 20. The participants including current and former senior officials mainly from the US and Europe, discussed the issue where many of them called for concerted action to counter Beijing rather than responding separately.
Former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop at the Ditchley conference, stressed the importance of major powers’ taking joint action to fight its pressure.
“China’s economic coercion has increased in recent years,” Bishop said. “Major powers need to act collectively and respond with countermeasures, particularly when smaller nations are under pressure.”
“Like-minded countries can work together to support the countries affected by economic coercion. It may be time to consider an economic version of a mutual defense regime,” she added, Nikkei Asia reported.
In such cases, the members of an alliance would act jointly if one of them comes under attack as in the case with NATO, however, there is no such collective framework to counter economic hostilities, as military threats are different from economic ones.
Moreover, a multilateral framework is indeed needed when the world’s second largest economy abuses its power, Nikkei Asia reported.
However, Beijing cited food safety as the reason for the ban, but that did not imply anything as some Chinese fishing boats continue to operate near waters where Japanese fishery vessels work.
According to Nikkei Asia, if Japanese seafood is actually unsafe, those Chinese boats should not be operating there.
Additionally, defying their ban, some of the nuclear plants in China are said to be releasing 6.5 times as much radioactive tritium as contained in the Fukushima wastewater each year.
Meanwhile, the US, Europe and Japan are exploring the possibility of an economic security framework with senior officials from the Group of Seven nations.
According to diplomatic sources, three options are under consideration, Nikkei Asia reported.
First, noting the construction of information networks, the sources said that the like-minded countries would single out products and components susceptible to coercion by China and others and implement measures to counter potential threats. When harm is done, they would swiftly share information and disclose damage.
Second is countermeasures. If a victim of coercion brings the case to the World Trade Organization, others would help it win the argument. In worst cases, the G7 or a group of countries that share the same concern might condemn the offender in joint statements.
However, these measures might not be enough, as it would take years for the WTO to issue a ruling. Hence, the third option is providing economic support to countries that have fallen victim to intimidation or sanctions.
If a country suffers from economic coercion by Beijing, for example, others would increase imports from the country to make up for the falling shipments, or help it find new markets, reported Nikkei Asia.
Moreover, Japan and the US are already working together to find new sales routes for Japanese scallops.
As it would be difficult to use all the merchanise and products which are being shut from the market, a practical approach would be to pressurize Beijing and try to convince it to stop economic coercion.
For that purpose, other countries need to keep channles open for dialogue so that China can back out if it chooses. (ANI)