China Accuses NATO Of Exaggerating Beijing Threat
The Chinese mission said the accusations are a “slander of China’s peaceful development” continuation of a “Cold War mentality”.
China on June 16 accused NATO of exaggerating the threat of China in what is called “China Threat Theory”. The military alliance branded China as a threat to global security and stability for developing its military and nuclear capabilities. The alliance vowed to work cooperatively to counter the “systematic challenges” posed by China.
NATO criticism: NATO has criticized China’s military and nuclear developments describing its weapons as “opaque”. The NATO leaders in a broad statement said that China’s increasingly assertive actions in building a nuclear arsenal and space and cyber warfare capabilities threatened the international order.
NATO leaders added, “China’s stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security.”
The Chinese mission to the European Union said in an angry response that NATO should “view China’s development rationally, stop exaggerating various forms of ‘China threat theory’ and not to use China’s legitimate interests and legal rights as excuses for manipulating group politics (while) artificially creating confrontations”.
The mission also added that the accusations are a “slander of China’s peaceful development, a misjudgment of the international situation and its own role, and it is the continuation of a Cold War mentality and the group’s political psychology at work”.
NATO, the military alliance, was established in 1949 headquartered in Brussels, Belgium to counter the power of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The alliance seems to have changed its rival to China, still functioning with a Cold War mentality.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General, said the allies would seek to cooperate with China on global issues like climate change. However, he decried China’s stance on other issues.
G7 criticism: In a three-day summit in England, G7 leaders criticized China for its human rights abuses against pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and the minorities in the Xinjiang region.
According to the human rights group, they say that China has about one million Uyghurs along with other minorities in the Xinjiang region into internment camps.
US President Joe Biden called for China to “start acting more responsibly in terms of international norms on human rights”.
Moreover, a number of controversial files soared between Beijing and Washington in the last recent years as trade, technology, and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is in addition to the military tensions that already exist between China, and rival powers including the United States and India in regions as the Himalayan border, Taiwan, and the South China Sea.
Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, said in a statement: “China is a rival in many issues, and at the same time also a partner in many issues. We made that clear at the G7 yesterday.”
“I think it’s really important that we offer China the chance for political discussions and to find solutions as we do with Russia. But when the threats are still there, also these hybrid threats, NATO has to be ready for this,” she added.
Joe Biden underpinned the importance of NATO and its role to counter international threats and its importance to US security.
He said, “I want to make it clear: NATO is critically important for US interests in and of itself. If there weren’t one, we’d have to invent it.”