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The national flag of China. (Reuters/Yonhap)

The Chinese government responded to the summit between South Korea, the US and Japan that took place at Camp David on Friday by asserting that “no country should seek its own security at the expense of other countries’ security interests.”

“In a world of change and disorder on the security front, all parties should act on the vision of a community of shared security for mankind, practice true multilateralism, and jointly address various security challenges,” said Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry in the daily press conference on Friday.

“The international community has its fair judgment on who is stoking conflicts and exacerbating tensions. The Asia-Pacific is an anchor for peace and development and a promising land for cooperation and growth, and should never be turned into a wrestling ground for geopolitical competition again.”

China’s state-run wire service Xinhua News also criticized the trilateral summit as inciting strife between opposing camps in its Chinese edition.

“The reason the US was so eager to organize this meeting is that it seeks to build a small bloc with Korea and Japan, incite strife with opposing blocs, and treat other countries’ strategic security as a launchpad for preserving its own hegemony,” the wire service wrote in an article titled “The perilous plot of the ROK-US-Japan summit at Camp David.”

Xinhua wrote that while the three countries are developing close ties, it won’t be easy for Korea and Japan to bury the hatchet over issues of history. “American efforts to unite South Korea and Japan are a product of Cold War thinking,” the wire service wrote. “Such a maneuver will inevitably fan the flames of antagonism, compromise the strategic security of other countries and jeopardize regional stability. By sowing seeds of division and intensifying opposition, the meeting represents a perilous gambit that might resurrect the specter of the Cold War.”

One day prior, the state-run Global Times ran an editorial titled “Does S. Korea know the implications of wading into this muddy water?” in which it criticized Korea’s attitude toward the summit, writing, “In recent years, South Korea has strived to achieve a relative balance in diplomacy and strategy amid geopolitical pressures, and has achieved remarkable economic and social development. However, this crucial relative balance for South Korea is being disrupted by the Yoon government internally and by Washington and Japan externally.”

By Choi Hyun-june, Beijing correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]