Beijing on Tuesday (June 15) accused NATO of exaggerating the threat from China and “creating confrontation” after Western allies vowed to jointly respond to the challenges posed by its policies.
NATO leaders said on Monday that they will join forces to address the “systemic challenges” posed by China’s policy, as US President Joe Biden restored Washington’s transatlantic relations at his first summit with allies.
The leaders stated in a broad statement of intent that China’s increasingly tough actions in building nuclear arsenals and space and cyber warfare capabilities threaten the international order.
Russian wording Brussels Summit Communiqué However, Russia is called a “threat” and China is called a “challenge.” “Russia” appears 63 times in the text, while China only appears 10 times.
In an angry response, the Chinese mission to the European Union issued a statement calling on NATO to “a rational view of China’s development, stop exaggerating various forms of the’China threat theory’, and not use China’s legitimate interests and legal rights as an excuse to manipulate group politics (at the same time) Create confrontation artificially”.
It added that NATO’s accusation was “a slander of China’s peaceful development, a misjudgment of the international situation and its own role, and a continuation of the Cold War mentality and group political psychology.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO allies will seek to cooperate with China on global issues such as climate change, but condemned Beijing’s increasingly tough stance on other issues.
The day before, after the G7 criticized China’s human rights record in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, the Chinese Embassy in the UK fired back at the G7 on the grounds of “political manipulation.”
