Beijing accuses NATO of exaggerating the Chinese threat and “creating a confrontation”. The country is responding to the promise of Western allies to work together to meet the challenges of China’s policy.

 

NATO leaders said Monday that they join forces against the “systemic challenges” posed by Chinese policy. In a statement of intent, the leaders said China’s increasingly emphatic actions in building a nuclear arsenal and space and cyberwar capabilities threaten the international order.

In an angry response, China’s Mission to the European Union called on NATO “to consider China’s development nationally, to stop exaggerating various forms of ‘Chinese threat theory’ and not to use China’s legitimate interests and legal rights as apologies for manipulating group politics and artificially creating confrontations”.

NATO’s allegations are “defamation of China’s peaceful development, a misjudgment of the international situation and its own role,” the Chinese said. They also consider it “the continuation of a Cold War mentality”.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the allies would seek to cooperate with China on global issues such as climate change. Still, he condemned Beijing’s increasingly dominant stance on other issues.

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