Nato chief calls for alliance to ‘respond together’ on China ahead of talks
- Jens Stoltenberg says Beijing is not an adversary but ‘does not share our values’
- Leaders are expected to brand China as a ‘systemic’ challenge to Atlantic security
Nato has long been preoccupied with a primary goal of deterring Russia, but developments in recent years such as Chinese investments in European ports and military drills with Russia have prompted the alliance to address the rise of China.
“What we have seen now over several years is a significant military build-up by China, investing heavily in new military capabilities including nuclear capabilities and also more advanced weapon systems,” Stoltenberg told CBS on Sunday.
While he insisted that there was no new Cold War and that China was “not an adversary”, the Nato chief repeated his view that “China does not share our values”.
“We see that in the way they crack down on democratic protests in Hong Kong, how they oppress minorities like the Uygurs and also how they use modern technology, social media [and] facial recognition to monitor, to do surveillance of their own population in a way we have never seen before,” Stoltenberg said.
“All of this matters for our security. And no country and no continent can manage or deal with this alone, so we need to respond together as an alliance, as Nato.”
G7 takes aim at China on coronavirus and human rights
After the talks, Nato leaders are expected to issue their first communique with significant reference to China. But some have questioned why Nato is concerned with a power which is not geographically part of the North Atlantic.
Stoltenberg told reporters on Friday that rather than Nato getting closer to China, “China is coming close to us”.
The Nato leaders are not expected to call China an adversary but to label it a “systemic” challenge to Atlantic security and the joint communique will likely include more details on that challenge and the bloc’s response.
Nato’s new Strategic Concept, its guiding policy document, is also expected to for the first time pay significant attention to China’s rise.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday said G7 leaders had rallied around the need to “counter and compete” with China on challenges ranging from safeguarding democracy to technology, and that “China will feature in the [Nato] communique in a more robust way than we’ve ever seen before”.
China has previously called on Nato to “abandon Cold War mentality and ideological bias”.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing last week that “deepening China-Russia relations are conducive to world peace and stability”.
“As the largest military alliance, Nato should abandon Cold War mentality and ideological bias, view the development of China and China-Russia relations in an objective, positive and open manner, and do more to uphold international and regional peace and stability,” he said.
