China Vows Robust Response To NATO Expansion In Asia
China has reacted angrily to a NATO communique portraying China as a major challenge to the group’s interests and security.
The country said it opposed NATO’s “eastward movement into the Asia-Pacific, warning that any act that jeopardises it’s legitimate rights and interests will be met with a resolute response.”
The Chinese mission to the European Union condemned the comments, accusing NATO of distorting China’s position and deliberately trying to discredit the country.
NATO leaders in a strongly worded communique, issued halfway through their two-day summit in the Lithuanian capital, had accused china of challenging the alliance’s interests, security and values with its “stated ambitions and coercive policies”.
The NATO declaration also said china and Russia were involved in a “deepening strategic partnership” and that the two countries were involved in “mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order”.
China’s state media also moved to attack NATO over its overtures towards democracies in the region.
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China’s state media also moved to attack NATO over its overtures towards democracies in the region with the tabloid Global Times publishing an editorial accusing the group of being “Washington’s axe, spears and shovels” and being the “source of war” wherever it goes.
“NATO must promptly withdraw the black hand it has extended toward the Asia-Pacific region, and it should not even think about squeezing half of its body in the future,”
the editorial said, claiming that most countries in Asia “not only do not welcome NATO but also see it as a terrible monster that should be avoided at all costs”.
Tuesday’s NATO declaration builds on the Strategic Concept that the group released last year, and which marked the first time the alliance had referred to the risks posed by China’s ambitions and policies.
It noted that the Asia Pacific was “important for NATO, given that developments in that region can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security”.
