LONDON — NATO leaders today warned for the first time about China’s international influence, a seminal step toward aligning the security bloc against the East Asian nation.
“It’s a very big move,” U.S. Ambassador to Nato Kay Bailey Hutchison told the Washington Examiner. “NATO is a defensive alliance. And, it is our job to look at risks of the future, to look at military build-ups, assess any kind of weaponry that is being produced by any other country in the world.”
The declaration delivers a symbolic victory for U.S. diplomats who have highlighted the risks of working with the rising power, especially for European allies who rely on Chinese telecommunications companies under the thumb of Beijing’s spy services. And Hutchison expects that the declaration will pay practical dividends even in the Indo-Pacific, a globally vital region that is far removed from NATO’s traditional stomping grounds.
“We have all 29 allies now committed to assessing and remaining watchful, watching and knowing what is happening in China,” Hutchison said. “I think that starts a process by which we will watch these ports, we will watch the waterways, we will make sure that we’re not being complacent if we see a hardening of activity in that area.”
The China-statement itself is muted. “To stay secure, we must look to the future together,” the allies declared. “We recognize that China’s growing influence and international policies present both opportunities and challenges that we need to address together as an Alliance.”
But U.S. officials and analysts are not dismayed by the diplomatic lingo. “I do think in 70 years of the alliance, not once was the word China ever mentioned as something that the alliance should be concerned about,” Christopher Skaluba, director of the Atlantic Council’s transatlantic security initiative, told the Washington Examiner. “I think that’s pretty significant, again, looking towards the future, not being stuck in a Cold War mentality.”
Chinese officials prefaced the release of the declaration by mocking Hutchison and highlighting disputes within NATO. “Even some US allies don’t like its role today in the world,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who suggested that the U.S. diplomat has “too much confidence,” told reporters. “We hope this ambassador will have a sober understanding of her country and the wider world, which is her due responsibility. The United States may have reasons to feel anxious, but it has to be reasonable.”
Hutchison maintained that the declaration demonstrates the enduring value of the transatlantic alliance at a time when Beijing has replaced the Soviet Union as the geopolitical center of communism. “I think all of this is the situational awareness that begins to affect what our defenses are,” she said. “And most certainly, that’s the importance of the transatlantic bond, what shows the importance of NATO, because we’re doing this together.”
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