As a warning. First, there is this unprecedented image: that of four leaders of the Asia-Pacific zone – Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand – all newcomers to the table of the Atlantic alliance. And then there is the choice of words.
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Meeting at the summit in Madrid, Spain, theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization ruled on Wednesday June 29, 2022 that Beijing represented a “challenge” for the “interests” and the “security” of the countries of the Alliance, in its new roadmap. “China’s declared ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, our security and our values“, thus writes NATO in this document baptized “strategic concept“and which had not been revised since 2010. This is the first time that this document has mentioned China, which traditionally did not come under the mission of the Atlantic Alliance. NATO denounces in particular”deep strategic partnership“between Beijing and Moscow”and their mutual attempts to undermine the rules-based international order“.
“Serious Challenges”
During his speech, Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, said: “China is substantially developing its military forces, including nuclear weapons. She wants to intimidate her neighbors and threatens Taiwan. It controls its own citizens using advanced technologies and relays Russian lies and misinformation. China is not our adversary, but we must be lucid about the serious challenges it represents.“
Beijing don’tthreatens“not the values, interests and security of the countries of the Atlantic Alliance, but it”challenge”, according to the organization. A way of notifying, for the United States for example, that we must not lose sight of this country, as a major strategic priority, even if the war in Ukraine forces Washington to reengage in Europe. Moreover, for Joe Biden, these two fights go hand in hand, Beijing asserting itself as a partner of Moscow. But the priority must remain the Euro-Atlantic area, remind some allies, including France, knowing that two major operations conducted by the Alliance outside Europe – in Afghanistan and Libya – ended in failure.
“Dirting China”
Beijing’s response was not long in coming: on Thursday, China castigated NATO’s efforts for the “dirty“, accusing the military alliance of having “hands covered in blood“.”This so-called NATO ‘strategic concept’ document ignores reality and turns the facts upside down“, reacted Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.He persists, wrongly, in presenting China as a systemic challenge and in smearing Chinese foreign policy“, he declared in front of the press, underlining the “firm oppositionfrom Beijing.
“NATO claims to be a regional organization and defensive in nature. In fact, it keeps expanding beyond its regional scope and jurisdiction, starting wars and killing innocent civilians.“, blasted Zhao Lijian.”NATO’s hands are covered in the blood of the peoples of the world“, he said, referring in particular to the Alliance’s interventions in Afghanistan, Libya or the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Serbia in 1999. This last event, which had caused the death of three journalists Chinese, permanently tarnished the reputation of NATO in the Asian country.
