NATO has accused China of being a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine, prompting an angry rebuke from Beijing over the US-led military bloc’s “Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric.”
China and Russia have characterized their relations as a “no-limits” partnership, which has been strengthened since the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow following the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict. During a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing in May, he and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, proclaimed a “new era” in their nations’ strategic ties.
NATO members hit out at relations between Beijing and Moscow in a declaration issued at the bloc’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington DC on Wednesday, claiming that China continues to “challenge our interests, security and values.”
“The deepening strategic partnership between Russia and the PRC and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut and reshape the rules-based international order, are a cause for profound concern,” added the document, which was signed by the heads of state and government of NATO members.
The US-led military bloc further accused China of shoring up the Russian defense industry by transferring dual-use materials and components, as well as engaging in “malicious cyber and hybrid activities.”
Responding to the allegations on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Chinese Mission to the EU described them as “provocative with obvious lies and smears.” Beijing has “lodged serious representations with” the bloc, the spokesperson added.
The mission reiterated that China “is not the creator to the Ukraine crisis” and insisted that Beijing is seeking to “promote peace talks and seek [a] political settlement.”
“[China] never provide[s] lethal weapons to either party of the conflict, and exercise[s] strict export control on dual-use goods,” the spokesperson said. NATO has been “fanning the flames” of the Ukraine conflict while scapegoating others, they added.
Beijing also warned NATO from expanding into the Asia-Pacific and disrupting peace in the region, accusing a “certain power” of attempting to “maintain hegemony.”
“NATO should stop hyping up the so-called China threat and provoking confrontation and rivalry,” the mission’s statement concluded.