BRUSSELS (Dispatches) -- China’s mission to the European Union urged NATO on Tuesday to stop exaggerating the “China threat theory” after the group’s leaders warned that the country presented “systemic challenges”.
NATO leaders on Monday had taken a forceful stance towards Beijing in a communique at United States President Joe Biden’s first summit with the alliance.
“China’s stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security,” NATO leaders had said.
The new U.S. president has urged his fellow NATO leaders to stand up to China’s growing military might, a change of focus for an alliance created to defend Europe from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The NATO statement “slandered” China’s peaceful development, misjudged the international situation, and indicated a “Cold War mentality,” China said in a response posted on the mission’s website.
China is always committed to peaceful development, it added.
“We will not pose a ‘systemic challenge’ to anyone, but if anyone wants to pose a ‘systemic challenge’ to us, we will not remain indifferent. “
In Beijing, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian, said the United States and Europe had “different interests,” and that some European countries “will not tie themselves to the anti-China war chariot of the United States”.
G7 nations meeting in Britain over the weekend scolded China over human rights in its Xinjiang region, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China.
China’s embassy in London said it was resolutely opposed to mentions of Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which it said distorted the facts and exposed the “sinister intentions of a few countries such as the United States.”
Relations between China and the U.S. were severely strained under former president Donald Trump, who viewed the rise of China as a threat to the United States.
Beijing hoped for an improvement in relations under Biden’s administration, but the new president has so far shown no sign of backing down on hardline policies toward Beijing.
The U.S. president has even urged his allies in Congress to harden their stance on China.
Beijing has denounced Washington’s aggressive policy, describing it as “too negative.” It has said that Biden is pushing towards confrontation rather than cooperation.