<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656444153936,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000165-15c6-d22c-a1ef-97efc26a0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656444153936,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000165-15c6-d22c-a1ef-97efc26a0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_56443094", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1039995"} }); ","_id":"00000181-abc3-df08-a3b3-fbcfe5120000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedChina accused NATO of “making enemies” as the alliance acknowledged the “challenge” presented by the rising communist power amid the war in Ukraine.
North American and European officials have negotiated a statement on China that is expected to be modest in substance but nonetheless significant for an alliance that historically has focused on security in the trans-Atlantic area. Yet Beijing marked the occasion with a sharp criticism of the Western powers, mirrored by an extemporaneous rebuke of China delivered by NATO’s top civilian.
“China’s development presents an opportunity for the world, not a challenge for anyone,” Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday. “We solemnly urge NATO to immediately stop spreading false and provocative statements against China. What NATO should do is to give up the Cold War mentality, zero-sum game mindset, and the practice of making enemies and stop seeking to disrupt Asia and the whole world after it has disrupted Europe.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will command much of the attention during the annual gathering of NATO leaders in Madrid, but the allies also invited the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand to participate in the summit. Their attendance, a historic convocation of NATO and Indo-Pacific leaders, reflects a growing interest in a coalition of democracies to manage threats from China and Russia — which “are more close now than they’ve ever been before,” as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg lamented ahead of the summit.
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“We are disappointed by the fact that China has not been able to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that China is spreading many of the false narratives about NATO, the West,” he said Tuesday at the NATO Public Forum. “China and Russia are more close now than they’ve ever been before. … They stated very clearly, both China and Russia, that they were against any NATO enlargement. And that’s the first time China so explicitly had a strong opinion directed against NATO and NATO enlargement.”
This summit will see a revision of NATO’s Strategic Concept to include a statement that identifies China as a “systemic challenge,” a designation reported by Bloomberg. Stoltenberg stipulated that China will not be described as an “adversary,” notwithstanding its contrary position on the war in Ukraine.
“We don’t regard China as an adversary,” Stoltenberg said. “And China, of course, is soon the biggest economy in the world. We need to engage with China, for instance, on issues like climate change. It matters for the whole energy market.”
That calibrated statement will reflect both the preoccupation with Russia and the war in Ukraine and the gap between U.S. and European outlooks regarding China. U.S. officials have tried to build a trans-Atlantic front to mitigate threats from Beijing in recent years — the alliance issued an unprecedented warning about “opportunities and challenges” emanating from China for the first time in 2019 — but NATO’s statement this year will be restrained by the European Union’s preferred approach, according to sources familiar with the drafting process.
“I don’t see consensus in the alliance [for] making a huge step forward, particularly, if you look at the Strategic Compass or other documents the EU has,” a European official told the Washington Examiner on condition of anonymity. “Most of [our] resources are devoted to [the] immediate challenge. … Nobody has forgotten China. It’s just it’s important to get it right, now, on Russia because if we lose now, what can you do then about China? China is obviously looking at how it will play out with Russia.”
NATO’s membership overlaps substantially with that of the EU, so the views of major European powers such as France and Germany are reflected in both. French President Emmanuel Macron’s government, during France’s presidency of the EU, oversaw the finalization of an EU Strategic Compass in March that characterized China as “a partner for cooperation, an economic competitor, and a systemic rival” — a triangular formulation that circumscribed NATO’s strategy document, according to the official.
“We are more aligned on China today than we were a year ago,” the European official said. “We are maybe still not on the same page, but we are more aligned, Europe and United States. So it’s a process that needs to continue.”
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Zhao, the Chinese official, implied that Beijing regards NATO as “a tool” for the U.S. to use against both Russia and China.
“As a product of the Cold War and the world’s largest military alliance, NATO has long clung to the outdated security concept and become a tool for certain country to maintain hegemony. NATO’s so-called new Strategic Concept is just ‘old wine in a new bottle,’” he said. “It still has not changed the Cold War mentality of creating imaginary enemies and bloc confrontation.”
