China on Thursday criticized NATO after the release of a document it presented as a threat, accusing the military Alliance of having “bloody hands”.
In its document titled “Strategic Concept”, which has not been revised since 2010, the Atlantic Alliance said at its summit in Madrid on Wednesday that China represented a “challenge” to the interests and security of NATO countries.
“The stated ambitions and coercive policies of the People’s Republic of China challenge our interests, security and values,” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in the document.
This was the first time the text refers to China, which is not traditionally mentioned in the Alliance mission.
Evidence of growing concern for China was the first-time attendance of government officials from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
But NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted that “China is not an enemy”.
Not surprisingly, the document was criticized by Beijing.
“This so-called NATO Strategic Concept document ignores the truth and presents the facts in reverse. It tries to smear China’s foreign policy,” said Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry.
Voicing his country’s “strong opposition” to the NATO document, the spokesperson added, “There is a false persistence in presenting China as a systemic challenge.”
NATO specifically condemns “the deepening of the strategic partnership between China and Russia and any attempts to undermine the international order”.
Western powers have repeatedly warned Beijing not to give any support to Russia in the war against Ukraine, which China does not condemn.
In contrast, China criticizes NATO as a hostile military organization that serves US interests.
“China is by no means the systematic challenge NATO imagines. In fact, it is NATO that poses a real systemic challenge to world peace and stability,” spokesman Zhao Lijian said. said.
“NATO is a regional organization and defense. It is not actually to go beyond its territorial borders and mandates, to incite wars and kill innocent civilians,” he added.
Referring to the Alliance’s interventions in Afghanistan, Libya, or the 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Serbia, “NATO’s hands are stained with the blood of the peoples of the world.”
The latest, killing three Chinese journalists, tarnished NATO’s reputation in the Asian country.
source: Noticias
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